The Rolling of the Years
One of my granddaughters was stricken with great sadness as she said goodbye to all her cousins and relatives when the Christmas vacation was over and it was time to return home to everyday life again. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with everyday life to her, but that there was so much that seemed so right, and settled, and good, about spending so many precious hours with loved ones she wished she could spend more time with, even be with all the time. She had also wept when she got the short end of a turkey wishbone the other day and had been wishing her loved ones could always be nearby. She’s sensitive that way. Why, she pined again with tears in the midst of our goodbyes, couldn’t it always be like this?
Why indeed. Why couldn’t there always be warmth, and cheer, and happiness? (For many, the question is more acute. Why couldn’t there ever be warmth, and cheer, and happiness?) It’s easier for adults to handle these kinds of moments, if also with some sadness. But to a sensitive child, life’s larger philosophical questions are far more difficult, if not altogether too much to bear.
Why must a child say farewell to a time of enchantment and thrills, and hugs, and laughter? Or why are there children who never enjoy such a time? Why must there be sadness at all?
Of course there are theological answers to these questions, having to do with our life in a fallen world and the necessity for its redemption, a redemption won by the coming of the Savior. But these answers, as comforting as they are to us, do little to stanch the flow of a child’s tears. She can’t think past the moment.
And yet, the year rolled into the next. A new year is upon us. And this child shall grow and mature and learn wisdom from her Christian parents, as time goes on. This is one reason there is always comfort to be found in a new year, if we count it the right way: anno Domini 2023. That many times (roughly) we have counted since our Lord came. For he did come, on his own schedule, as promised. And he has promised to return during one of these calendar years. Meanwhile children will grow up, and adults will grow old, and new children will be born, and others will die, and all we who have celebrated our Lord’s coming in the flesh shall rise at the resurrection of the dead on the calendar day of his return in glory.
And at that day he shall wipe every tear from my granddaughter’s eyes.
Happy new year.