Turning of the Year

Turning of the year

by Steve Loggins

1/3/10

The countdown to the moment goes and then the clock strikes twelve,

The world erupts in jubilant cheer as another year is put on the shelf.

A blank slate is now before us, the grounds for our expectant joys,

We hope for the best, we wish for a change, the change that time deploys.

But what is time? a ticking clock will demonstrate its passing,

A linear count of finite beats, that culminates with none amassing.

An hourglass may run the time through a bottleneck to show,

That sand has passed from bulb to bulb, from moving high to low.

But is this time? Or just a trick to show us what we want to know,

That we have the time to live and breathe, time to learn and grow.

The turning of a year for us marks many things we want to see,

We count ourselves by the years we live, and hope this one turns out to be

Better than the previous one, and all those gone before,

With furtive optimism we meet the year as a new thing to explore.

Some hopes are dashed immediately, as death and suffering come

For Chronos knows no changing days, time keeps plodding on and on.

Atropos cuts the spinning thread that Lachesis measures out,

For each man, woman, child of us, the Fates make us cry or shout.

It is a lie. There are no Fates or Norns to decide our days,

There is only God, the master of time, to Him we owe our praise.

He gave us life, He gives us time, to live, to love, to die.

And then His promise made to us is that time will say “goodbye”

No turning of the year, no sorrow comes to life,

Eternity will end our fears, heaven ends all strife.

The Master stands beyond our days, and from eternal past

Outside the years we measure out, only His people last.

So count the passing of your time, number your days and die

But understand that there is more – trust God and don’t deny.