“I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.”

-John 12:46

Happy New Year!  I hope this newsletter finds you and yours doing well.  It might be a bit of carry over from the Christmas season, but, no matter what the previous year held there is always something about the start of the new year that makes me hopeful and joyful.   I fully recognize that in reality not much changed in the moment that 11:59 pm on December 31st became 12:00 am on January 1st. That one single moment did not fix all the problems in the world. It did not suddenly make anything better.  So why be hopeful, why be joyful? Well a colleague of mine shared this picture on New Year’s Day…

For me, that single comic panel summed up why as this new year begins I pause and take a moment to be hopeful, to be joyful.  Sure I  could look around at the state of the country and the world. I could allow the anger, the hatred, the conflict,  the distrust that is readily apparent to set the tone for how the year will go…

OR…

I…we, can choose to plant flowers.  Yes there is plenty of darkness in the world, but, there is also light. We just finished celebrating that light coming into our world, offering us hope, love, joy and peace and my friends, that light has not gone out. The light of Christ burns bright into all those deep dark places in the world, and in our lives.  I hope you will join me this year in not just basking in that light in your own life, but also spreading it. Let us make this world a better place through our words and our actions. Let us make this world a better place by sharing the love we know in Christ.

Join me in planting a flower today.

God Bless,

Pastor Devin