Beloved in the Lord,

We were in Leavenworth with Chris’s family, marking Naomi’s birthday on New Year’s Eve and the dawning of the New Year with a parcel of visiting cousins we were meeting for the very first time.  Soon after arriving at their home along Icicle Creek, I was called to help my brother in law Doug remove the Tree that had stood at the center of Christmas celebrations the week before.  He was determined that there would be no lingering Tree this year; no waiting until February before disposing of it.  This year a new tradition would be inaugurated: the burning of the Christmas Tree as one year ended and another began.  It was the kind of tradition I could definitely get behind!  We carried the Tree out away from the house and planted it in the adjacent field in the two+ feet of snow that covered the ground. There it stood, upright and firm.

The plan was simple.  When fireworks were set off later that night the biggest one would be placed beneath the outstretched branches of the Tree, thus igniting its needles and creating an amazing pyrotechnic display.   As a guy who can sit around for hours watching fires, let me say that I was all over this idea.  With the Tree now in place, Doug used the snow blower to clear a space a safe distance away where we would bring the portable fire pit and chairs, while Kai and I went to work gathering wood for the bonfire.

All the elements were present to make it a truly memorable night: the snow-covered field…calm weather…a crackling fire.  As night descended, the adults gathered around the bonfire while the younger ones went searching for icicles to add to their collections.  Finally, the moment arrived.  After some preliminary rocket displays, nephew Aiden placed the Big Bertha of fireworks at the base of the Tree, tilting it so the trajectory of its flares would stream right through the branches.  Then, lighting the fuse he stood back.  All eyes were glued to the Tree as the fireworks began to fly!

You remember how susceptible Christmas trees are to burning, right?  It’s one of those axioms of modern domestic life—“Never attempt to burn a Christmas tree in your fireplace at home; there could be dire consequences.” (I know a man who actually tried this once…an L.A. firefighter no less!  You should have seen the look on his face when his neighbors, seeing the billows of smoke erupting from his chimney, called 911 and the clarion call of fire engine sirens came hurtling down the block!  But that’s another story…) Well, it turns out this Tree was not.  Not one branch or even needle of the tree actually burned.  Some were scorched, yes, but that was about it.  I guess it wasn’t dry enough yet.  The kids went into the house while those of us who remained turned our attention to the crackling fire in the pit once more.  It seemed that this was one tradition that would have to be tweaked a bit in order to match the vision of blazing glory our minds had so readily imagined.

As we turn the page each January, it is our nature to hope that the failures, flare-outs, and ill-conceived ideas of the year past will not make it with us into the New Year.  Oh! that it would be so!  We fervently long for a new order, within us and between us, where fear, violence, and dread no longer hold sway.  As people whose destiny is shaped by hope, we are learning to put our trust not in our own plans but in God’s purposes.

Isaiah captured that purpose when he spoke of God’s salvation as a “burning torch” that would light the way for God’s people.  A torch of such magnitude that it would dispel the bleak darkness of exile and usher in a new way of being and living that would bring the community into alignment with what our Creator has intended from the beginning. That light has come in Jesus.  The feast of Epiphany with which this New Year begins invites us to embrace his light, to have our eyes—like those of the Magi—opened to see just what God is up to in this one who turns plain water into the wine of community.  As 2013 unfolds, let us strive to keep our eyes focused—even glued—on him.  For he is truly the light no darkness can overcome.

New Year’s Blessings,

Pastor Erik