Sun’s coming up. It is cold in the northern places with white covering all around. Science tells us it is because the earth is tilted on its axis so the northern hemisphere is further away from the sun. They don’t tell us who does the tilting. The first week of the New Year is complete. We have had some wonderful and fulfilling holidays. The old folks are getting older. The young are full of energy and enthusiasm. Some are back to work or school. Some are fondly weaving through wonderful memories of yesterday and all its sweetness. Others ponder in sorrow the passing of those they are missing. Some are deep in thought about what the year will bring.
So as we sit in this moment of now we consider how we will plow to provide slop for the sow and fodder for the cow. Or perhaps there is love in the air between the maid so fair and the strong young man of her heart’s care. Life goes on as it always has. Some are newly born while others struggle with hearts torn by the passing away of someone they mourn. The cycle is continual, it is all around us. The flowers sprout and grow, striving to bloom brilliant and beautiful. Then fading in glory, they wilt and die. The dead stems and leaves are gathered into a pile and burned. The seeds fall to the ground and the cycle continues. Each generation is blessed with its own crop of beauty and ashes.
It has been this way since God set His grand plan into motion. Here we are until we are not then another rises up to be seen. What we did and who we impacted, all falls within our purpose for being, according to the purpose and plan of the Master. If we chose well we exhilarate. If poorly then we frustrate. Not God but those who look for us to be the “We” we were meant to be. To choose well is to receive the reward of the chosen children. There is a place of blissful “Nows” for those who do. And there is an unimaginably painful reward for those whose choices reject the wisdom and kindness of God. That is the hope of their tomorrow. Today is the answer to the desire and choices of yesterday.
And so the cycle continues. I am not charged to control it, define it nor explain it. I am charged only to glorify the One who has created all this for His own good pleasure. It is a cycle which has repeated for thousands of years. The Bible tells us that originally God’s greatest creation enjoyed nearly a thousand years within their life cycle. Today we know that cycle to be seventy to eighty years and occasionally one hundred or more. The amount of time is not of as much consequence as the use of the time. That which has glorified God is counted as much. That which denies His truth or rebels against His desire is counted as little. Each life, each cycle, each one of us has the freedom to choose to bring Him glory.
If our cycle is pleasing to Him, we bring Him glory now. If we are among those who reject Him and deny His glory, He will be glorified when we stand before His judgment seat. Then He will receive glory in our condemnation and eternal separation. He does not receive joy or pleasure in our poor choices. He has given us every possible opportunity to make right choices within the circumstances of our lives. Others around us watch our choices and decisions as we observe theirs. It is the cycle of life. It returns to the beginning at the end of each cycle. This year is the beginning of a new cycle after the ending of the last. We make choices. The cycle continues.