From whom all blessings flow

We are in the old year about to enter the new,according to the Chinese calendar. But then confusingly, we're also already in the new year, 2010. So for the last month or so, we've inhabited a liminal, twilight space - in the new year, but also in the old - depending on which calendar/ethnicity you look at.

The thought has occupied me in the last month; this odd magical time that we're in. Mainly though, it struck me that this is the state we'll be in for the rest of our lives, until the day we really go home.

We're fully justified but not yet sanctified. The old has passed and the new has come, but we are not perfected yet, not yet caught up in the clouds, not yet given our completed new selves. We're born again, made new, but still inhabit our old bodies, still tempted by our old temptations, still living on this side of heaven.

We will enter fully into the new year in 24 hours but for the rest of our lives, we'll be waiting to go home and be made new.

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For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God,a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.(2 Cor 5:1-7)

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Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him all ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Amen