As we step into this new year, I’d like to offer a brief benediction.

Typically, a benediction is given at the end of a worship service—after we’ve prayed and sung and confessed and listened to the word of God proclaimed. It’s a way to seemingly seal it all up, close it all out. But what’s interesting to consider is that, really, a benediction is a beginning. A blessing. A sending. A gift. It’s a way to say, “As we move into what’s next, this is what we hope will be true. This is who we hope we will be. And this is who we hope we will become.”

So today, to serve as our New Year Benediction, I’ve selected a prayer by the late minister and author, Ted Loder. It is called, Grant Me Your Sense of Timing. As always, I hope it serves you well.

O God of all seasons and senses,

grant {us} your sense of timing

to submit gracefully

and rejoice quietly

in the turn of the seasons.

In this season of short days and long nights,

of gray and white and cold,

teach {us} the lessons of waiting:

of the snow joining the mystery

of the hunkered-down seeds

growing in their sleep

watched over by gnarled-limbed, grandparent trees

resting from autumn’s staggering energy;

of the silent, whirling earth

circling to race back home to the sun.

O God, grant {us} your sense of timing.

In this season of short days and long nights,

Of gray and white and cold,

teach {us} the lessons of endings:

children growing, friends leaving,

jobs concluding,

stages finishing,

grieving over,

grudges over,

blaming over,

excuses over.

O God, grant {us} your sense of timing.

In this season of short days and long nights,

Of gray and white and cold,

teach {us} the lessons of beginnings:

that such waitings and endings

may be a starting place,

a planting of seeds

which bring to birth

what is ready to be born—

something right and just and different,

a new song,

a deeper relationship,

a fuller love—

in the fullness of your time.

O God, grant {us} your sense of timing.

As we step into a brand new year, may we remember to trust God’s timing and match God’s pace as we continue to move through our lives, becoming the people God calls and invites us to be. Happy New Year, friends. Amen.