Not really a New Year

Now for two days, I've been thinking I should post a "Happy New Year" something on my blog- but was at a loss or just wasn't in the mood. after a month of Christmas cheer- Christmas movies, lights, carols, gifts and good food. I came to the conclusion this Holiday Season that we have almost taken all resemblance of God out of what should be the mostly Godly of season and are actually quite happy with what I will call the "residual leftover of his power and love. We like that "feeling of good cheer" without any of the responsibility.

No more arrogant  than this day, when we declare with any authority what 2011 will bring to us. 2011 will bring what God choose to bring to us and sometime joy is poured down on the wicked and the blessed and sometime grief is poured down on the wicked and the blessed.

I was finally inpsired looking out from my bedroom windows in the loft of our cabin at the  pinon trees surrounding our house- two to three hundred year old pinon trees, according to an arborist who came out to access their health, an arborist who by his excitement, hadn't seen many pinons older or taller than these, dwarfing the power poles in our front drive. Pinon trees older then this country, older then any record keeping and from a time when we humans had a little bit more respect for the power of God and his creation because we didn't think we knew as much as we think we know now!

This view give me hope because God's creation reminds me of his everlasting love and comfort, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Many animals have found shelter and substance under the protection of these great pinons this holiday season, right before Christmas a herd of lose wandering horses and donkeys found our yard a nice place to graze, our stack of hay bales too inviting.

Yesterday, a herd of deer also sought shelter and went to nibbling.

What a powerful thing God's creation is, it goes by no calendar or resets itself every January 1st- but  the reminiscing of years past good or bad held inside the great pinon's tree rings of years of drought, years of rain and it's bark holding the scares of lightning strikes and wire fencing.

Seasons come and go, but the pinons just stand as sentries over the passing of time never losing their leaves like other evergreens, another symbol of God's everlasting love for his people. Since bad times come to both the wicked and the blessed, all we can do is be wise like the animals who this winter sheltered under the old pinons in my yard,  and abide in God's protection because storm and sunshine are going to come in 2011.