“The Happy New Year Card You’ll Never See”
January 1, 2022
It’s officially 2022 around the world, and I would imagine you have received many social media wishes for a Happy New Year via Facebook, Instagram, GIFs, and personal texting. Did you know, however, that there is actually a “top way” or “best way” to express sentiments for a Happy New Year? Many websites have dedicated space to suggesting EVERY kind of message to EVERY category of people: loved ones, family and friends who are near and dear in heart, “professional peeps” and even acquaintances. Also, many cyberspace suggestions exist as to top ways to send 2022 romantic, professional, or friendly greetings via text messaging and all social media venues.
Regardless of all the categories and formats of these messages, the expressions for a Happy New Year have some common denominators. Most wish health, wealth, prosperity, happiness, success and “everything you could imagine” you want in 2022. For example, some cards say:
Happy Everything!
May every moment of 2022 be filled with pure pleasure and each day come out exactly like what you want.
May you be healthy, wealthy, and a great achiever…Happy New Year.
In the forthcoming New Year may your life be cool, amusing, and happy all through…be a winner by all means.
This New Year should bring for you, happiness, smiles, and pleasure, on and on and always.
The truth is, that simply flipping the calendar from 2021 to 2022, or having the Waterford Crystal ball drop in Times Square, does not guarantee a New Year filled with pure pleasure, or each day resulting in exactly what we want. While the typical New Year’s card wishes good health and wealth to you, many of us are struggling with health issues, deep disappointments, and great loss even up to the final seconds of 2021. Even today, January 1, 2022, I know far too many people who are sitting at the bedside of a loved one, preparing to say their final “goodbye”.
Yet, never will you see a New Year’s card which says, “May your New Year be filled with sickness, poverty, and many trials!” Now before you accuse me of being a melancholy “New Year Baby”, I’m not suggesting that we should send those kinds of wishes to anyone. However, what if God decided that in 2022 our greatest blessings would come through some pain, disappointment, or even trials? What if His best blessings for us do not come in the form of wealth, health, or prosperity? What if the New Year does not bring happiness and pleasure on and on and always–at least not in the way that we define those things? What if God intends to bring you great JOY in 2022?
David writes in Psalm 16: 11-
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
David had full confidence that his life with God, both in the present and forevermore, would be marked by the highest and best pleasures! And these pleasures that David mentions, which are enjoyed at the right hand of God (the right-hand place is the place of nobility and security in all courts) are pleasures, even on earth, that mark a place of favor, honor, and security. Both now and for all eternity, “pleasures forevermore” are found at the right hand of God, in His presence, and not in separation from Him.
Given the context of Psalm 16, this is not some Pollyanna sentiment because we are reminded that this life of gladness and joy that David is writing about is not a problem-free life. It is a life, like David’s, that may face attack or be challenged on many levels. Yet, in a life that is committed to God, we find a secure, happy and blessed life – a life of JOY!
And that is the New Year’s greeting I would send to you, the Happy New Year card you’ll never see — “May the profound pleasures forevermore that come from the right-hand of God, and from a relationship with His Son, be yours in 2022!”