2015

New Year's Day had dawned cold, bleak and grey with ice pellets in the forecast. I had bought black-eyed peas to cook, along with other of our traditional foods for our meal that day. It would be just three of us, including our son for dinner, as his family was away on a trip to the East Coast. Then he told me he planned to work all day at his farmhouse on a computer assignment for his company.

On sudden inspiration, I said, "Well, we could just bring dinner out there!" He protested that he didn't want to put me to that trouble, but I insisted it would be fun! I set to work, putting the peas on to cook with pork hocks to give them flavor. That done, I remembered I had chocolate chips for cookies and pecans left over from Christmas, so soon cookies chock-full of them were baking in the oven.

Cabbage and other vegetables went into a pot next, and when the cookies came out, in went the cornbread I stirred up. Howard made a gallon jug of tea while I found a basket to hold everything. We bundled up and set out with our "picnic," braving the cold and the fine mist in the air.

Greg had a roaring fire in the fireplace to welcome us, and the food was delicious! The change of scene and eating away from home made the day exciting and fun. It also pulled our son away from his work deadline for awhile as we sat on his couch in front of the fire and chatted away. The little bit of extra effort had brightened his day and ours and was worth it!

On Sunday morning when we settled into church near the front after our Sunday School class, I turned to Howard and said, "Look who's on the front row!" It was our friend and former pastor from a different church, no doubt the speaker today while our pastor was in Thailand.

He began his sermon by referring to a visual on the wall of the Lord's Supper with the words, "Anno Domini 2015, The Year of Our Lord." He asked how many wanted this to be the year of our Lord, and what that would look like. Would we only want the blessings? What if there were sad days ahead as well?

Taking his text from Hebrews 12 about the great cloud of witnesses, we were soon led back to the heroes of faith in chapter 11. Many great feats were accomplished by Moses, David, Samuel and the prophets. But what about those in the following verses who did not receive deliverance, "destitute, afflicted and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy."?

The minister pointed out that faith does not always mean we are exempt from the negative things in life, but that God may take those hard experiences and use us to comfort others who may be going through the same thing.

We have faced things this past year that we have never faced before, but through them we have learned to empathize more fully with those who have experienced them. May it truly be the Year of Our Lord this year!