We just said goodbye to another year – to all the past sins, mistakes and blunders. Now we can take heart in the everlasting light that takes away every blot.  We have a clean slate because of that light – the one that shone brightly in Bethlehem so many years ago – the baby Jesus, the Son of God, God with us. We cannot, by anything we resolve, erase the past, but we can look forward with hope to the One who came to this world and changed it completely.  No longer need we fear death.  The terror of judgment for our wrong-doing no longer holds a life sentence.  Our guilt no longer exists. We can look ahead to each new day with confidence that our sins have been eliminated by what He did for us.  We can resolve to do as He did during His time with us, to serve others and thereby serve Him.

Through the cobwebs of existence – through the darkness of our strife –

Through the dankness of our sinning, through the wickedness of life –

Through the deepest, darkest pits of hell and the helplessness we feel –

Comes a beam of light from heaven our dark, sinful hearts to heal.

The light grows stronger as we move to get a closer glance,

but as we reach to touch its warmth, we’re enveloped in a trance.

It’s just within our grasp we think, but no matter how we try,

We can’t escape the darkness that consumes us from all sides.

Just when we think that all is lost and relinquish every hope,

The light erases darkness and it’s then that we can cope.

This little light from Bethlehem became a brilliant star

that came to earth to save the world from sin’s most deadly scar.

Now as we start a brand-new year, old sins have been washed away,

He shed His blood so we could live, a ransom we can’t repay,

He came in darkness of the night, but His brilliance cannot hide.

We are redeemed by His great might.  With us He’ll always abide.

KATHY BOECHER©