One Door Closes and Another Door Opens

Transitions can be difficult. We transition from childhood to adulthood, from single life to married life, from job to job, and eventually from life to death. With each transition, a new existence begins. Even in death, we begin our eternal life with God in heaven.

That’s how I feel every year on New Year’s Eve. We are leaving one year behind and looking ahead with wonder at what the New Year will bring. Today is also the closing of one Feast in the Church and the beginning of a new Feast.

The Apodosis of Christmas brings an end to our reference to the Nativity, but we don’t stop celebrating the Newborn Christ. This evening, while the world is celebrating the coming of the New Year, the Church will honor the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, His 8-day blessing.

While the two celebrations are not specifically linked, I can’t help but think about spiritual transitions this time of year. When Saint Paul speaks of sacrifices being “offered year after year” I can’t help but connect time to our relationship to Christ. It was His Nativity that changed time.

Brethren, since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when he came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this one had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Hebrews 10.1-18

Now that we ‘are moving on’ to celebrate His 8-day blessing in the Temple, we see another transition. Christ grows as a human child just as we do. His mother brings Him to the Temple to be blessed by God just as our mother did. His Nativity changed time, so our time must change.

When we awake tomorrow in the New Year, I invite you to consider how you will change YOUR time for Christ. As the door to 2025 closes this evening, the door for 2026 will open with a NEW opportunity for you to be changed for Christ, and live for Him rather than for yourself.

Forget all the traditional New Year Resolutions. Or better yet, reshape them to be dedicated to God. Here are some sample resolutions you may want to consider. I have based them on the 2026 ‘most common’ New Year Resolutions.

• Instead of resolving to earn more money, resolve to dedicate the money to already earn to the glory of God and the work of His Church.
• Instead of resolving to be healthier, resolve to increase your fasting to honor God with your physical body.
• Instead of resolving to spend more time with family and friends, resolve to spend more time in Church attending services more than just Sunday mornings.
• Instead of resolving to improve your position at work, resolve to allow your faith to guide your choice at work, for the glory of God.
• Instead of resolving to read more, resolve to read the Holy Scriptures daily.

Any transition in life can bring anxiety. The New Year is going to be ‘new enough’ that you won’t need more anxiety resolving issues that don’t matter in the end. Allow the 2025 door to close on your ‘old way’ of life. Open the 2026 door on your ‘new way’ of life, for the glory of God.

Happy New Year! Together we will Live A New Life In Christ in 2026!