This day bought the ritual of getting out a new calendar in pre-digital days.
The old year came off the wall, and a new, fresh calendar took its place.
It was a physical reminder that we cross a threshold from past to future when a year begins. Even for people who do not believe in resolutions, there are fleeting thoughts of how you want your life to be in the new year.
We get this picture from Julius Caesar, who messed with our calendar. He added two months (which he humbly named after himself—July and August), and he renamed the other months.
The first month was January, after the Roman god Janus. He had two faces, one looked backward, and the other faced forward.
In reality, the name was apt because Janus meant “doorway.” We cross a threshold.
But it is not only on January 1st do we cross a threshold. God always places us in front of a door we can open or close.
Joshua challenged a new generation to stand at a threshold and make decisions. He told them:
…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
So we stand in front of a new year, a threshold to the life you will live this year. Will you cross the threshold God has placed before you?
-Robert G. Taylor-
