When I was young, I eagerly awaited summer break because it played the introductory notes to a new school year melody. I spent the warm months of July and August dreaming about the song I might sing. Yet, over and over, a familiar refrain played.
This desire for newness followed me into adulthood. I resolved that when I began post-secondary school, when I entered the workforce, and when I switched jobs the chorus and tempo would change. A move across the country provided blank sheet-music. I could be anyone I desired with no historical off-key renditions echoing every movement. Yet, my score built to a disappointing crescendo. Snatching the baton and directing each measure reverberated my wretchedness. I’m not the conductor; I’m an instrument in the Maestro’s orchestra. Anything composed apart from Him will be a deafening disaster of screeching notes.
Now, a new calendar year provides another new beginning filled with lyrics I don’t want to sing. We are in quarantine again. The sorrowful melody resounds. This isn’t the triumphant victory I prayed for, but maybe there is room for a reflective and lonely score in this opera.
No matter how tuneless and chaotic the first notes sound, God is composing new morning mercies. All creation sings of His glory. Lonely notes build urgency, and hearts bang out victory as He puts a new song in the mouths of His people. He pulls from each instrument in perfect time and harmony. The melodic line moves His people, and we sing our praises to Him and tell of His wondrous works.
This New Year of new closures and new disappointments also contains new sheet music penned by the Maestro’s hand. Tune your ears to the song this concerto proclaims. A new heaven and new earth await. Today’s lonely melody preludes tomorrow’s victory. The longing in our hearts reveals that earth was never meant to be our victory song. One day, those who believe will join the angels in heaven and sing for all eternity of God’s great faithfulness. We will sing our songs of repentance and dependence on Christ. We will sing with endless joy the song of the redeemed.
Until then, I choose to sing a new song of new mercies for this new year. I sing to my God, who is worthy to be praised.