by Tim Hall

New Year's Eve marks a sober vantage point for many of us. It is a summit from which we view the year that is almost past, and from which we faintly see the year before us. That new year comes with January, a month named for the mythical Roman god Janus. This legendary being was said to have two faces: one which looked back while the other looked ahead. That's what we try to do as we prepare to greet another year.

It's harder to look forward than it is to look back. After all, the past is familiar; we lived in it. The future, however, is unknown to all. We hope certain things will take place in the months ahead, but there's no way to be sure. In some ways, it's more comfortable to live in the past than it is to face the future.

We're more like the Israelites of old than we care to admit. In Numbers 11:4-6 they revealed their restless hearts: "Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: 'Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!'" (NKJV)

"We remember . . ." That's a refrain sung often by the Jews in the wilderness. It meant that they considered the things of the past better than what they were enduring on their journey. They actually urged Moses to take them back to Egypt! Janus was not among the majority of this group. They only had faces for the past.

Do we do better than these wanderers? Or do we often follow their example by yielding to craving for things which pull us away from God? Are we willing to set our faces to the future, believing the promises of God are better than anything this world can offer?

If we don't work to prevent it, our past will become our prison.

As we prepare to cross from one year to the next, let us recall the admonition of Paul in Colossians 3:1-3: "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

The church is that number who have been called out of this world. We can't help but remember how things used to be. Some things from which we were called were things we enjoyed. But we must not look only to the past. We must determine to fix our focus on the future, the glorious future God has promised to all who love and follow his Son.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).