After waking New Year’s Day to the news of a deadly terrorist attack in the city of New Orleans and then a second less “successful” attack on the Trump hotel in Las Vegas later in the day, a sense of dread overtook me for a moment, I won’t lie.
But many faithful people have lived through dreadful times before us, and their words of hope are no small comfort. As we see in these words from the poet Minnie Louise Haskins (quoted by King George VI in his 1939 wartime address to the British), those who have been through Hell and back often know where best to place their hope:
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.
How ever it is you greet this new year – with a pep in your step or with dread or sorrow as we all feel from time to time– may you seek and find the hand of God along your way.
This comes with Love,
Mo. Sarah+