Walking into the new year is kind of like standing at the mouth of a cave. You cannot see how deep it is, for the darkness hides it’s path.Though your voice comes back to you in echoes, it is never discernible as to how far or through how many twists and turns into the cave it has travelled.
There is only one way to move through the cave … take a first step.
When we are faced with a long trek, with little knowledge of where we might end up, or what we might encounter on our way, we can be temporarily paralyzed by our fear of the unknown.
I was introduced to a poem, recently, that touched my experience of fear of the unknown, fear of making a mistake.
Written by Minnie Louise Haskins, it was read by King George VI in his Christmas Day message in 1939, as the world feared the beginning of another war. Though Ms. Haskins titled it, “God Knows” it has become more commonly known as “The Gate of the Year.”
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied,
“Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!”
I know that, for me, I can be so cautious that I do not move forward at all. Yet, I live with the certainty that I never take a step alone, that I always have the support, the protection and the companionship of God himself.
As we move into the uncertainties of a new year, may be put our hands into the hand of God.
itsawonderfilledlife 