Time for a history lesson.
Did you know that the month of January is named after the Roman god Janus. Janus was a god with two faces. One face is filled with sadness and seems to look backwards. The other face is filled with hope as it looks forward. It becomes the two faces of the New Year…one that looks back at the previous year and one that looks forward to the new year.
At what point in the year does that hope-filled face realize that it’s the sad face of despair again? For me a couple weeks into January, I realize any concept of resolutions aren’t important and/or aren’t going to come into fruition. Perhaps the hope filled face starts to slip a bit by the end of the first month of the year.
As believers, we can be assured that our hope doesn’t have to tie to the flipping of the calendar page to indicate a New Year. Our God is the same “yesterday, and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). God is over our past, our present and our future. He’s not just there on the 31st of December as we make promises to ourselves about how much better the next year will be.
And if that’s true, well then…it doesn’t matter what the date is on the calendar. It truly doesn’t matter which way the face is turned…the reality is that there is hope in our face of happiness and sadness. It’s the hope of a future with Jesus.
One of the greatest promises we can read in the Bible is when God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us in Hebrews 13:5. This promise stands year-round, year after year.
Read that again…a promise that stands year-round. Every year.
Our God is an awesome God who provides for us through trials and tribulations. And He provides for us through triumph and victory. It does not matter what we are going through, He will be with us. It does not matter if we are happy or sad, He will be with us. It simply does not matter what season of life we are in, He will be with us.
There’s no need for us to subscribe to the Roman god’s concept of having two faces for our year…we have the one true God to rely on. I pray you know this now and every day of 2023.
Happy New Year!
~Emily
Iron Porch 