"On the first day of the new year, my true love gave to me..."

..greens and beans!

For reasons I do not fully understand, "greens and beans" are a traditional food on the first day of the year for many people. It wasn't until I married Anji that I became acquainted with this rather superstitious meal, but tonight our house smells of bacon cooked with onion, ham, and a hint of spinach. It's a comforting way to welcome 2008. 

The weather has turned bitter cold, but the promise of snow has not come to fruition. It is no wonder meteorologists are a derided bunch, is it? Nonetheless we are joyful today in our warm abode, still anticipating a blanket of cool white outside when we awake in the morning as if we were children praying for a day off from school. Seeing snow covering the imperfections of the ground and gently rounding the hard edges of man-made things brings to mind the perfect covering of Christ's sacrifice for our sins and the attainable purity through His love.

We spent last evening eating pizza and playing games with some new friends here and stayed at their home until midnight had passed (and our children's mental functions began to disintegrate). We laughed as we drove towards home while thinking that we had, for the first time in a long while, entered the new year prior to many of our family and friends. Nothing like being a bit ahead of the game, eh? Anji and the boys were well throughout the evening, but all (especially Anji and Sam) are particularly tired today. Funny that we choose to enter the year tired and red-eyed rather than bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! Perhaps that's a resolution for the 2008 list...

There is much to prepare for this year and the Lord will work in a mighty way for those who are willing to step through the rent veil and enter into His presence, leaving self behind. As we leave the holidays and the prior year, may we take nothing with us into the new year except trust, hope, and delight in our Father!

May the Lord our Father richly bless you in 2008.