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Happy New Year ... Expect more of the same ...??

Subhead
Built on a Rock
By
Rev. Michael Geiger, guest columnist, Happy New Year

A blessed and happy New Year to all!
I have a prediction for 2021. It will be like 2020.
WHAT!!! Say it isn’t so! I am SO done with 2020 and ready for 2021!
In many ways, so am I. 2021 is before us with many new experiences and opportunities. We will sit down today or soon and plan out what we hope to accomplish, set resolutions to change mindset or behavior, and pray that the challenges of 2020 will NOT follow us in 2021.
I too am optimistic. But not because we have a vaccine, or because it’s not an election year, or because the stock market is ending the year higher than it has ended any previous year (at least at the time of this writing.)
I am optimistic because I/we enter the year with the same faithful, loving God with whom we entered 2020 and 2019 and 2018 and …
I am optimistic because the promises of God that were true last Jan. 1 are the same today. Here are a few.
The calendar changes … we change … situations change … but God doesn’t change in 2021! “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
Seasons change … winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter … they may be cooler or warmer than last year, but the fact that they change testifies that God’s faithfulness hasn’t changed. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22
If I stop and reflect, every day of 2020 I had the compassion and mercy of God shown to me. He promises the same every morning of 2021. “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 22-23
In spite of the social distancing, Zoom gatherings and six-foot spacing, we still are connected to the love of God found in Christ. Nothing will separate us from that in 2021 either. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
The list could go on … which reminds us whatever events and experiences we have in 2021, we can engage in them with the consistent, unchanging promises of God!
May your 2021 be filled with many realizations of the loving and faithful God who has allowed you to enter a New Year.
To see other devotions or worship services of Cross and Crown Lutheran Church (WELS) in Georgetown, Texas, visit the website www.crossandcrowntx.com and click on Live Stream. (Rev. Geiger is the nephew of copy editor Esther Frakes.)

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