New Years Eve Early Morning

Friends

We’re sitting at our desk at 8,600 feet and enjoying the beauty of the New Mexico Rockies.  Snow is everywhere with a crunchy top that gives way to a soft, dry (meaning no snowballs) base.  You can see the dry/tan residue of the sage bushes sticking up across the meadow.  Icicles the size of iPads have curled themselves over the roof’s edge.  The sky is crystal blue; the sun has yet to begin its morning march across the meadow to the deck.

We’re here at the request of our son and daughter to welcome the new year in the place where we have vacationed for over 30 years.    The lone pine tree that we planted is decorated with large plastic ornaments and a couple of strands of lights.  The lights have brightened the evening from 5-10pm, though last night was the first time we’ve seen them on since Thanksgiving.  And when the lights go off this evening, it will be Midnight in New York; close enough for us to greet the new year, hoping we can stay awake that long.

The view provides a stark contrast; in less than a week, we’ll have returned to Azure Wind to see what God has been doing with the good people and the shoreline of what seems worlds apart.  Warmth, water, boats, winds, shuttling to the shore and shopping by dinghy, listening for the sounds of engines running smoothly, looking into bilges for any evidence of leaks, checking the electrical meters, reflecting on the connections and the disconnects we experience in our world these days. 

Birds, turtles and fish will replace the elk, bears and prairie dogs soon.  A group of Methodists on the east end of Tortola with a  new pastor will replace the group of Presbyterians just down the hill from here in Ranchos de Taos. 

As the old year turns to new, it has been good to remember that the word “Jesus” means “God is Salvation”.  Andrew Kellner, in the daily devotional D365.org, writes:

Jesus is a game changer, and yet for Christians it is so easy to take it all for granted. But the reality that God has come to us, not in words on a page, or even words spoken by others, but in human form — that is utterly and completely amazing. God can no longer be relegated to some distant kingdom of clouds, listening to angels jamming on harps morning, noon, and night. Neither can human beings, regardless of religion or background, be treated as if they do not matter. No, Jesus transforms our understanding of ourselves, of what it means to be human.

Jesus' presence in the world forces us to come face to face with a present and active God in our midst. A God whose very being is love and desires for us to become the same.

So when this weekend’s festivities have come and gone, and after a hurried day of packing and another long day of traveling, we’ll be thinking of you from a different view.  In the meantime, all the best to you and yours.  May, in the way God’s miracles unfold, we receive the gifts of hope and peace in the time ahead.

Dave & Marney