“No one ever regards the first of January with indifference.” —Charles Lamb.

Maranatha: (1 Cor. 16:22) consists of two Aramean words, Maran’athah, meaning, “our Lord comes,” or is “coming.” If the latter interpretation is adopted, the meaning of the phrase is, “Our Lord is coming, and he will judge those who have set him at nought.” (Comp. Phil. 4:5; James 5:8)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

Dave Barry’s Year in Review: 2009: “It was a year of Hope — at first in the sense of ‘I feel hopeful!’ and later in the sense of ‘I hope this year ends soon!’ It was also a year of Change, especially in Washington, where the tired old hacks of yesteryear finally yielded the reins of power to a group of fresh, young, idealistic, new-idea outsiders such as Nancy Pelosi. As a result Washington, rejecting ‘business as usual,’ finally stopped trying to solve every problem by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at it and instead started trying to solve every problem by throwing trillions of taxpayer dollars at it.”

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

“Christianity, generally a horizon-watching faith rather than a novel-gazing one, has over the centuries helped people to outgrow petty hopes and climb faster and higher toward God’s greater challenges. But what if evangelicals sing self-absorbed hymns and songs, classing “personal peace and affluence” —to use Francis Schaeffer’s term— as Job No. 1? The result could be spiritual heart attacks and an international laziness that allows Islam and other anti-Christian doctrines to spread without challenge.” —Marvin Olasky in WORLD magazine, December 29, 2007.

Riddles for the New Year:
1. Why is a New Year’s resolution like a mirror?

2. Which travels faster in January: heat or cold?

3. What is the next letter in the series?: J F M A M J

4. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?

5. What goes up and never comes down?

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“My father made us,” she began, “keep a diary in two columns: on one side we were to put down in the morning what we thought would be the course and events of the coming day, and at night we were to put down on the other side what really had happened. It would be to some people a rather sad way of telling their lives . . . I don’t mean that mine has been sad, only so very different to what I expected.”
—Miss Matty in Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.

I read 227 books in 2009, if I counted correctly.

“Destiny waits in the hand of God, shaping the still unshapen:
I have seen these things in a shaft of sunlight.
Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hand of statesmen
Who do, some well, some ill, planning and guessing,
Having their aims which turn in their hands in the pattern of time.”
—T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral.

Happy New Year to All! May 2010, and the new decade be filled with books, poetry, life, and love. And may all who enter here go away with a sense of the Joy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is and was, and is to come. Maranatha!