I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. – Micah 6:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 31, 2016): Micah 6

New Year’s Eve 2016, a traditional time for looking back. It is amazing how often we seem to get to this time of the year, and we can’t wait to turn the page. I mean, next year has to be better than this one, doesn’t it? Except that this seems to be the dream of every New Year’s Eve. It always appears to have been a horrible year. So we can’t wait to move on.

Except that, that is rarely the truth. The reality is that the negatives almost always seem to loom larger than the positives. Even in our list of events, it is the negative ones that seem to get the press, and the things that go right seldom seem to get any notice. We are obsessed with what has gone wrong. Even our lists of significant deaths is much longer than the list of notable births. We just seem to want to orient ourselves toward the negative.

So God has to remind Israel through Micah of the good that God has done in their midst. The cry of the people is “look at all of the evil that you have done to us” or maybe more precisely “look at all the evil you have allowed to happen.” God’s response is to remind them of the good. “I was the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt and guided you to your homeland. I was the one who bought you back from slavery and gave you the ability to the Captains of your own destinies. I sent you leaders. You chased Moses away, but I brought him back to you to lead you out of Egypt. And I gave to him Aaron and Miriam. When you have cried out to me, I have been there.

But maybe that was the real problem. It has always been a lot easier to complain about God than to try to be a people that is in relationship with him. It is simpler to grumble about the way things are than to work to make them better.

So tonight 2016 ends. I don’t know what kind of a year it might have been for you. But try to see the positives that it brought. As far as the negatives are concerned, turning the page tonight from 2016 to 2017 won’t mean anything unless we are committed to the process of fixing what is wrong. And to do that effectively means working on our relationship with the one who was God over 2016 and will be God over 2017. We have to be willing to recognize the good that he has done - and is willing to do – as we get ready to turn the page.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Micah 7

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my son-in-law Greg as we close out the year.