Firsts

And so, without further ado, today is the very first day of 2025.

Yesterday, our family celebrated a combined New Year’s Eve, Christmas, and a family birthday all in one big event. During dinner someone said, “I think this is the first time we have had homemade eggnog all year!”

I came back with “And tomorrow, when you drink the leftovers, you will be able to say the same thing!”

For yesterday’s tomorrow, which is today, is the first day of the new year.

Everything about today is a “first.” When you stretched this morning, it was the first time you stretched all year. When you made coffee, it was the first time you made coffee all year. And when I fed my little stray kittens outside this morning, it was the first time I fed them all year, poor things!

The sunrise this morning was invisible, as so many of the sunrises have been for the last few weeks. The sky just grew gradually lighter until it was time to call it “day,” and it has remained the same way until this writing. Even if I didn’t see it, I know the sun rose. It is in the sky, blazing away, shining with all its might in the same way it always has been since God set it there.

But I can’t see it, and I miss it. When I think back to my “sunrise project,” which concluded one year ago, I remember how shockingly few sunrises are visible during January and February in Michigan. I only captured three or four during the month of January in 2023, and about that many in February. December, too, lacks a lot of sun. But I know the sun is there, even when I can’t see it.

In this house, we help endure the gray of January by planning. We have a family ritual of sitting down with the calendar for the upcoming year and finding all our holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and any pre-planned special events, and we mark them on the calendar. Yes, a real paper calendar!

The next thing we do is begin to plan our garden(s). This process begins with an evaluation of how last year’s garden produced. We will discuss what plants should go where and what, if anything, we can do to improve our yield for the upcoming year. (“Yield” for me also means lots more blooming flowers!)

This may sound rather dry, but it’s one of the most fun things we do, because we dream of our ideal garden(s), and then imagine other projects we might like to complete throughout the year, too. I always have some crazy project I want to try, and that opposes Jim, who believes that the best plan is an exact copy of last year. (And sometimes he is right, but not this year!)

Tony’s wish is usually for our entire yard to become an untouched wilderness, with a new little section of herbs he hasn’t tried to grow yet. (We spar over this, as I ask him to consider the neighbor’s view.) But I do love to see lots of plants living uninhibited, so that they can bloom at will. . . (There’s the flowers again.)

Beau only wants to know where he can draw uninterrupted, and then he will be happy. (Which is what he is doing now, inking furiously! Dr. Dumb’s next issue is on the way!)

My Grandma Dode used to say “Despise not the day of small beginnings,” and that phrase came to mind today. She was the eternal optomist, even late in life, hopeful and encouraging whenever I would share an idea or ask her help to form a plan. We should never be afraid to start, she said, because literally everything starts small.

It starts with an idea! And our ideas, if they are any good, come in the form of inspiration.

You know how when someone stops breathing, a paramedic will give them mouth-to-mouth to get them going again? The medic will do a few repetitions, then pause and watch for breath movements or sounds. That patient then has to respond to the forceful inspiration (literally “breathe in”) with an exhale, and then with a follow-up intake of their own.

When the gift of inspiration comes, our job is to grab it and begin to work with it. Just being inspired won’t get the job done. The inspiration is an injection of spirit, or of enthusiasm and direction, which may lead us to something new, but only if we actually move on it.

It may be hard to recognize inspiration on New Year’s Day. It might be gray where you are, and you may be assessing your financial situation after the holidays and find further reason for sobriety. But don’t be discouraged; use that energy positively to learn (exhale, or maybe sign deeply) and then plan a new direction for the coming year, (take a deep breath on your own–see, doesn’t it feel good?), then do it!

“Despise not the day of small beginnings,” Grandma Dode said, paraphrasing from Zechariah 4:10, which also says that the Lord rejoices to see the plumb line in the hand of the builder. The plumb line is the tool that plans the wall, to make sure it’s straight.

God loves for us to begin the process of doing that thing that he is inspiring us to do! Every one of us has a calling, a special task that the Lord created us to do. It may not be just one thing, and it may change as you go through your life. But God made you for something, and every day we live in obedience is spent either preparing for that task, or doing it, or transitioning into the next task.

But it has to be “straight.” Or, in other words, it has to be the thing we are called to do. There is no virtue in just being busy. We can do that all day long at the worst job in the world, and if what we are doing isn’t the thing God is calling us to do, then it IS the worst job in the world.

To get it right, God wants us to talk to him about it (“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33), then plan according to his will, which is always what he inspires us to do (“For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13), and then DO IT, with the strength of God empowering us! (“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Ephesians 6:10)

So today, while we can still see the old year in the rearview mirror, and while we can also look out at the new one, mostly unsullied, before us; think of all of the “firsts” ahead! And then, with the lessons of the old firmly in mind, and with the mystery and promise of the New Year in front of us, we can plan.

I want to encourage you to go ahead and dream a little while. Pray for the Lord to guide you and imagine how wonderful things could be in the future! And when you are finished dreaming, and you have that happy future in front of your mind, ask yourself what about it is in your power to do.

No one can solve world hunger on his or her own, for example, but almost any one of us could invite someone over to share a meal. You can speak to the one you are caring for and see an immediate result of your gifts. There’s always some way to make progress toward the goal God has given you. The need around us may seem overwhelming, but we are not called to do all that. Let the big picture rest in God’s hands (the whole world, in fact), and just do the one thing he inspires you to do. Maybe it’ll be one of your “firsts!”

Happy New Year’s Day, my friends! May God bless you this year, as he creates many opportunities for you to do good in His name!