As we take our first, few steps into this new year, we cannot know what 2024 will hold for us. There may be unexpected joys or trials, new challenges begun, or opportunities missed, dreams realized, or ambitions and hopes lost, new friendships begun, or familiar traditions lost. It may be a blessing and a grace that we cannot know the details as the year unfolds before us. We are asked only to step forward in faith, one step at a time. I am reminded of the accounts of the Maji, who stepped out on their long and uncertain journey, to find the promised child. The routes and resting places of their journey would be unfamiliar, hazardous at times, and strange. Their journey, with its distances, cost, risks, and the uncertainty of success, was perhaps their daily reality and challenge. There would be moments of confusion. At Herod’s palace, the Maji failed to find the expected One, although the star was still present. But despite the hardships, the unexpected, and the uncertainties, they kept travelling towards the child.
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising.
Matthew 2 v 9 RSV
I love the blessing written by Jan Richardson. I have copied the opening section of it here but please do find and read the whole poem.
A Blessing for Epiphany “For Those Who Have Far to Travel” © Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons. Used by permission. janrichardson.com
If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it; might never dare the first step that propels you from the place
you have known toward the place you know not.
Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping step by single step.
So, as we embark on this new year, may we be guided by wisdom, courage, and compassion. Let us cherish the joys, learn from the trials, and remain open to the countless possibilities that await us. May we take each step with intention and grace, and may our journey be filled with love, grace, growth, and new possibilities.
“The road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseen.” Jane Richardson