Day one of the year 2026.  How was your New Year’s Eve? Ms. Kate and I did stay up and see the birth of 2026 but being up at midnight is a fairly routine habit for us. She and I have shared a lot of New Year’s Eves over the years starting with the 1963 new year. In the early years though, while we were together at midnight, we didn’t get to have that “first kiss of the year” at midnight because I was busy with my band playing Auld Lange Sign on my trumpet as we played for someone’s NYE party. Then there were the years that I was stationed with the Air Force somewhere else across the world like the Philippines or Turkey without her. Or — many times we were “together”, but I was on duty as the shift commander for the Security Police. But —- physically together or not, —- we still have celebrated many, many years of watching a new year arrive whether we were together or not. 

I was thinking about the celebration of New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve and wondered if mankind has always celebrated this vent. It turns out that the answer is “yes”. The earliest documented celebrations are dated back over 4000 years to Mesopotamia. There are many ancient sites built specifically for celebrating the event along with other solstice event. The rituals have changed over the years, (thank goodness, we don’t need any sacrificial rituals) but the acknowledgement is still real.  

While I was pondering that, I also began thinking about the actual event itself. What we are actually celebrating is the completion of the earth’s orbit around the sun. It is a renewal of seasons and patterns of growth and changes of weather patterns etc that have gone on forever even before God created man. So let’s think about that for a moment to get your year started. Many religious groups (creationists) will argue that the earth is 6000 years old. I don’t agree with them nor do I know where they get that number. Other people, (the evolutionists) will argue that the earth may be at least as old as ten million years. I don’t have a lot of faith in that number either but will grant them their belief. The point is that whether the earth is 6000 years or ten million years old, it means that the earth has completed that same trip around the sun at 67,100 miles per hour without deviation for the entire existence of this planet. Now, (bear with me) add to this the fact that each and everyone of those years has had 365 periods of  planet rotation at 1000 miles and hour, again without deviation, for the entire existence of the planet. Explain to me how all of that perfection can happen without Devine intervention. Tell me how all of that perfection can happen by accident or as the result of a “big bang” out in the chaos of the cosmos. 

And you know what? That same God cares intimately about you. If you have not developed a relationship with God, please do so today. Peace