Into the Unknown

Watching out Old Year’s night

Into the dawning of the New

Another year has flown so quickly

It just flitted past our view.

Notwithstanding the plans we made

And the conditions that prevailed

We have made it yet another time

Before the grim reaper could assail.

Some that started out with us

Are no longer in this life’s fray

Having gone the way of all flesh

In spite of our plea for them to stay.

We take this moment to reflect

On their life and legacy

And pray that we who have remained

Would preserve their memory.

The New Year beckons with its challenges

Challenges of varying assortment

Some of which we are aware

But others in the unknown department.

Some to which we know the answers

Others we have failed to resolve,

Whatever the level of difficulty

Each of us somehow will be involved.

None of us can hope to escape

The ravages of the coming year

For as a global community

We all experience the common fear.

The fear regarding life’s quality

And what the future holds,

The fear and angst of the unpredictable

That confronts the timid and the bold.

The fear of death and what it entails

And of destinies whether this or that,

The fear of life beyond the grave

Whether or not such is a fact.

These and so many other thoughts

Vie for our attention one way or another,

It doesn’t matter whether we’re rich or poor

For most, these issues are a bother.

Nothing is quite so disconcerting

As peering into the unknown

With its large and looming uncertainty

And its characterized, ominous tone.

The unknown is all around us

So near that we can almost touch

But yet we ne’er can decipher the next event

To put plans in place for such.

Like a little vessel in the ocean huge

We are carried along on its whim,

Helpless almost to do anything

And our chances hopelessly slim.

Into the inevitable, unknown reality

We chart a course for the year

Knowing full well that by February

That course will have disappeared.

The compass of life by which we sail

Depends upon what we see

The North Star is fixed but where in life

Do we have such a desired facility?

We sail through life by guess at best

Premised on a number of assumptions

But the fickleness of the human mind

Often finds us short of truth and reason.

Hence

The question on every mind should be:

Where can I find a guiding star,

A star not shaken by circumstance

Like that guiding wise men from afar?

For given our position in the belly of the ship

Amidst the boisterous waves

There must be one with an overarching view

That has the ability to save.

  

There is such a one that knows the unknown

That from Him nothing is hid;

He created the universe and you and me

And now for our life He bids.

God’s Son by whom He made all things

Was the bid He made for us,

His life’s blood was spilt on Calvary’s cross

Yes, God’s Son’s name is Jesus

God the Father looked down from high

And saw vessels without helm or rudder,

The captains thereof knew not what to do

And the mighty winds made them shudder.

With a wooden cross he stayed their ships

And gave them a chance to cope

All they needed to do was simply apply

Through Jesus our ever conquering hope

The New Year need not take us unawares

Because the future we do not know,

The Holy Spirit is more reliable than any star

From the Bible we learn that this is so.

With him in our vessel we can smile

Yes, we can smile at the storm,

He has weathered many a tempest

Tempests of all kinds and form.

Let not the New Year find you on the rocks

Battered and broken from the year before,

Accept the bid God has made for you

There is so much for you in store.

A captain with whom you can sail any sea

However the winds and waves may churn

With simple trust and faith in Him

There is much that you can learn.

A reducing fear regarding the unknown,

Less fear of death or what’s beyond

For God who guides, knows everything

About every New Year from Creation’s dawn.

Stewart Russell © 2016