The Man at the Gate of the Year

One of the Buxton family traditions I’ve adopted over the years is a brief quote with an interesting history.  My Dad used to say it at dinner every New Year’s Day.  All throughout my ministry – or at least for as long as I can remember – I’ve used it as a benediction on the Sundays closest to January 1.

It’s a snippet from a longer poem by the little-known British poet Minnie Haskins.  Published in 1908, it came to public attention when King George VI (father of the current Queen Elizabeth) quoted it in his 1939 Christmas address to the British Empire on the eve of World War II. 

I recently learned that when the Queen Mother was buried in 2002, the words of this poem were read at her state funeral.

The quote I learned is:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

       “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied: “Go forth into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

       That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

What has spoken to me over the years is this assertion:  that going forward into the unknown, accompanied by God, is safer than going into the known without God. God alone makes the journey into unknown territory better than following a well-lit path.

Our prayer is so often for certainty. “If I could only see what’s ahead! If I only knew!”  But that’s more dangerous than we realize.  A false sense of security breeds inattention, which trips us up time and again. 

But here’s fresh wisdom:  Go by the way of not-knowing – hand in hand with God.  Walking in companionship with the Lord is safer than traveling a well-lit path by ourselves.

May you walk closely with God into the new beginning we call 2013.

 

Pastor Larry