Time Travel
by John Sainsbury
Families have their own particular aspects of the Christmas/New Year season that they really love the most. To be honest, I really like all of it! But in our family, some years ago, we began a tradition relating to New Year which I have really grown to love. We call it our ‘time travel’ letter. The essential idea is that each New Year’s Day we make the time to write a letter to ourselves to be opened the following New Year’s Day. In our letter we review the contents of the letter we wrote the previous year, which will often set out our hopes and dreams for the year ahead and where we hope to be, by the time we read our next one.
We also thank God for the blessings we have received, and honestly note our disappointments. We then set out our hopes and aspirations for the year to come to review next time round. Over the years, it has been amazing to read how God has blessed us in many ways we’d hoped for, and many that we could never have anticipated. It’s a moment to be honest and reflective, and its quite uncanny just how faithful we have found God to be in the warp and weft of our life.
Now this practice may, at first sight, seem to be at odds with Isaiah’s words that we are to forget the former things and not to dwell on the past (Isaiah 43:18-19). But there was a specific context for that instruction, as God was preparing His people for the new way that He was going to bring about their restoration and they should not seek to go back to their old ways.
In contrast, often in the Old Testament, and even in the New, God tells His people that they are to remember the ways He has acted on their behalf, to celebrate His victories for them and to pass on their stories to generations yet to come (1 Corinthians 11:23). As we remember the past in these ways, we are encouraged to trust God for our futures, which is what our Time Travel letters seek to help us to do.
Whatever your own traditions or practices over this very special time of year, may I encourage you to ensure that Jesus is at the heart of it. And as you prepare for the new year, may you increasingly know His leading and guiding as you journey on with Him.
John Sainsbury and his wife Sue are part of the leadership team at Ellel Grange. John has served as a church leader for many years, most recently as Lead Pastor of the Garstang Free Methodist Church. He has a passion for seeing many brought into the fulness of life that following Christ brings.
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