CHATTERBOX - Lochwinnoch

From the Parish Church
Always a night from old to new!
Night and the healing balm of sleep!
Each morn is New Year’s morn come true,
morn of a festival to keep.
All nights are sacred nights to make
confession and resolve and prayer;
all days are sacred days to wake
new gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to new;
only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
each sunrise sees a new year born.
Helen Hunt Jackson
This year’s Christmas play at the
school, angels took us on a journey
around the world to see how different
countries celebrate Christmas. At the
end of the play, one of the angels
commented that while each different
country had their own traditions,
each family also had their unique way
of celebrating. Another angel pointed
out that in our differences, there was
unity in that all people who celebrate
Christmas are celebrating the birth of
Jesus Christ, who for Christians is
also known as Immanuel – “God
With Us”. That knowledge that God is
with us gives Christians so much
strength, especially when facing
unknown or uncertain futures.
If it is true that around the world
different countries and families are
united in different ways of celebrating
Christmas, it is especially true for
New Year. While some countries and
cultures follow a different calendar,
the Gregorian Calendar is now
accepted at least as the international
civil calendar and as such is
celebrated around the world. Perhaps
it is because New Year is not
associated with any particular faith
group that it is seen as a truly
international festival. Yet each family
has its own traditions. When I was
growing up, no matter what your
plans for the wee small hours after
Stuart Mitchell
Financial Services
East Lochhead
Self-Catering Cottages
the bells, new Year had to be
brought in at home. At 10 to
midnight my father would ensure
that everyone had a drink and then
we had to stand and hold it, not
daring to drink from it until the Big
Ben struck the hour of midnight and
we had all shared New Year
greetings.
As a child I found New Year
profoundly moving – I still do.
When I was living with my parents,
we always either listened to Radio 4
or switched on BBC 1 for the
countdown to New Year. I always
found the gap between the end of
Westminster Chimes and the start
of the midnight chimes to be very
frightening – what if the New Year
didn’t come, what would happen if
time stood still? As an adult,
working for the BBC, I learned that
there is always 10 seconds between
the two. Yet as we stand on the cusp
of a New Year, we do experience
mixed emotions do we not? There
may well be regrets from the past
year, there may well be concerns for
the New.
That is why I so like the poem
quoted at the top of the page. While
New Year is not a specifically
Christian festival, it does remind us
of the new start we are offered every
time we realise that we could have
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done something better, made a
mistake or have regrets. New Year is a
time to put the past behind us and
start afresh. However we don’t need
to wait a whole year before having
another opportunity for a fresh start.
Each new day, we can try again. That
is one of the many comforts of the
Christian faith, the promise of
forgiveness, the promise that God
forgets the past and allows us to begin
each year, each day, each moment
afresh. That is after all why we make
New Year resolutions, we take the
opportunity to begin again, to reorder
our lives in a better way. Yet we
should be careful not to set out sights
too high – we are only human after
all. Small changes can make a big
difference.
As many of you may know by now,
this New Year will be our last in
Lochwinnoch. The Presbytery of
Greenock and Paisley have decided it
is time for us to explore pastures new.
We will, of course, miss Lochwinnoch
– we have made so many good friends
here and have had such a wonderful
time living and working in the village.
Just as we all may have regrets and
concerns for the future at the
beginning of a New Year, so, as a
family, we have regrets and concerns
as we face a new start and new future.
That said, God guided us to
Lochwinnoch and we are confident
that God will lead us to a new
challenge. As I said at earlier, at
Christmas we celebrate the coming of
Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God With
Us, so we know that where ever we go,
God will be with us.
Our prayer for our friends in
Lochwinnoch is that you too will
know the presence of God this New
Year. May God bless you all with
peace and health.
Yours,