Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. [Psalm 100:4-5 (ESV)]
“A Bayberry Candle burned to the socket brings Luck to the household, Food to the larder and Gold to the pocket.”
Every year a friend sends me a bayberry candle to burn on New Year’s Eve. Legend has it that lighting a bayberry candle when the first star appears, burning it past midnight into the new year, and letting it burn all the way down will bring good luck, wealth, and prosperity to a home. We can’t stay awake past midnight and allowing an unattended candle to burn down to its socket seems more a guarantee of fire and disaster than good luck. Nevertheless, in honor of our friend, we light our candle every New Year’s Eve and extinguish it shortly after the new year begins in Greenland (three time zones east).
There are a host of new year’s traditions ranging from jumping seven waves or eating a grape at each stroke of midnight to smashing plates, hanging onions on your door, or eating Hoppin’ John. Like the bayberry candle, these traditions are supposed to ensure good fortune for the coming year. Rather than trusting in luck, however, we trust in God.
Starting the new year by taking inventory of the past year’s God-given blessings seems a better tradition than trusting the new year to candles, grapes, or a mixture of black-eyed peas, rice, and pork. While I keep a gratitude journal, some families have a “gratitude jar” into which little notes of thanks are dropped throughout the year. With the new year’s advent, the jar is emptied, the notes are read, memories are enjoyed, and a new year of gratitude begins with an empty jar.
If you had a gratitude journal or jar, what things would be mentioned from the past year? Would there be thanks for finding things—the car keys, the money to pay the mortgage, or the perfect gift for that hard to please relative? What about unexpected blessings—technical assistance that spoke English, the surprise visit from your children, or a year-end bonus? There could be thanks for the ability to give—Christmas boxes to Samaritan’s Purse, blood to the Red Cross, clothes to the charity resale shop, or an opportunity to a deserving person. Gratitude would probably be expressed for the various people in your life—be they exterminators, trash collectors, skilled surgeons, first responders, your spouse, grief counselors, helpful sales associates, or physical therapists.
In all likelihood, there’d be gratitude for your accomplishments and those of others—not burning the holiday pies, getting sober, or finally finishing the 1,000-piece puzzle. Would you mention the moments that took your breath away, whether a roseate spoonbill in the swamp, a double rainbow, or seeing the elusive green flash at sunset? Would you write of thing that were found—perhaps the solution to a problem, the right words, a lost locket, or a new friend? Surely, there would be thanks for things received, be it a good mammogram report or words of encouragement, forgiveness, and love.
Of course, there would be thanks given for arrivals—the prodigal who returned home, spring daffodils, or a new baby. What about things that happened—trips, weddings, baptisms, and anniversaries—as well as things that didn’t—hurricanes, leaky roofs, or getting downsized? Perhaps there would be thanks for getting through a challenging time—anything from the terrible twos or chemo to the loss of a spouse—as well as thanks for things as simple as the cat, Amazon Prime, a child’s giggle, or deep-dish pizza.
There is so much for which to be grateful—from big things like Jesus, salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life to little ones like warm chocolate chip cookies, FaceTime with the kids, or a lazy afternoon with a good book. If you don’t have a gratitude journal or jar, what about looking through the hundreds of photos you probably have on your phone? You’ll probably be reminded of all sorts of ways in which you were blessed this past year. Remembering them all is a great way for one year to end and the new year to begin because it reassures us that God has our lives firmly in His hands.
I don’t know how this year will play out for any of us—but I know it will not be without its challenges. Nevertheless, remembering the good things of 2025 reminds us that God protected, defended, supported, loved, and blessed us in the past and reassures us that He will do the same in the coming year!
New Year’s resolutions are made and broken every year. Perhaps the best way to begin this year is to start with the determination to look for our blessings and offer thanks for them daily.
Happy New Year, dear friends. May 2026 be filled with a multitude of blessings and gratitude.
Give us, O Lord, thankful hearts which never forget your goodness to us. Give us, O Lord, grateful hearts, which do not waste time complaining. [St. Thomas Aquinas]
With just one week until Christmas, we may find ourselves sorely tempted to repeat Scrooge’s “Bah, humbug!” We’ve been busy with planning, cooking, baking, cleaning, decorating, shopping, wrapping, packing, and shipping; chances are that our expectations have become unrealistic and impossible to achieve. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in doing and getting that we forget the purpose of this wonderful holiday.
In the midst of all the tedious and repetitive regulations regarding sacrificial offerings in Leviticus, we find evidence of God’s love and mercy. For several sacrifices, a distinction was made between offering requirements for the wealthy and the poor. Called korban oleh v’yored, there was a sliding scale for sacrifice based on a person’s economic position. In Luke’s gospel, for example, we learn that Mary and Joseph brought two birds as their sacrifice after Jesus’ birth. Had the family been wealthier, they would have brought a one-year-old lamb and a pigeon or dove and, had they been poorer, they would have brought only two quarts of choice flour.
The Levites (descendants of Jacob’s son Levi) were set aside for religious service. While all priests were Levites, not all Levites were priests. The most sacred tasks, like offering the sacrifices and conducting ceremonies, were reserved for the priests (kohanim) who were descendants of Aaron; the rest of the Levites supported the priests in their duties.
Evil is anything that contradicts the nature of God and it’s easy to see Satan’s presence in malevolent acts like terrorism, genocide, slavery, torture, and human trafficking. The enemy, however, is usually far more subtle. Evil also includes things like anger, pride, fretfulness, immorality, pettiness, selfishness, deceit, envy, spite, unforgiveness, hatred, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, greed, and unkindness. Although we’re more likely to find them in our hearts than genocide or murder, they’re not as easy to recognize. Because it’s easier to see the evil done by others than it is to face the evil in our hearts, we don’t spot Satan when he comes slithering into our lives.
Devotions of the Heart 