Happy New Year! After the relative (and I use that word with all its meanings) busyness of the Christmas period, today's New Year holiday has been a wonderfully relaxed and lazy day. A slow start, with brunch at a Port Solent restaurant led into a day of 'West Wing' videos (only punctuated by a brisk 60 mile motorbike ride in the cold during the late afternoon).
I confess I love West Wing and the fast-moving dramatisation of American politics. I know it's only fiction but I'm sure there's lots to be learned from it of the role that America plays in the world order. The story lines are so intriguingly gripping and the writing really draws you into the lives of the characters. I'm working my way through series 5 and have watched about 10 episodes today - just 5 more and I can move on to series 6 and 7! Free time will be severely limited again when we go back to work tomorrow so I imagine it will be next Christmas before I finish them all.
One episode stood out this afternoon. It chronicled the death and funeral of a past President, all played out over the back drop of nuclear testing and Middle East tension. The final scenes saw current President (Jed Bartlett) reading a letter from his dead predecessor, encouraging him to visit the Lincoln Memorial and 'listen'. The programme ended with a shot of Bartlett standing in front of the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln. It was great to see the shots of Bartlett standing exactly where Lyn and I had stood when we visited the Memorial a few years ago (check out Lyn's picture, below, with Lincoln shrouded for cleaning).
More than the memory of a previous visit, I was touched by the image of the fictional 'most powerful man in the world' looking minuscule in front of the imposing statue of his forbear and founding father.
As the credits rolled I couldn't help but translate that image into one of man standing before the Lord - the contrast between His power and majesty and humankind's insignificance. yet, despite the contrast, an awareness that God values us not as inferior and worthless but as valuable and significant. I recalled those well-known verses from Psalm 8 -
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, 
which you have set in place,4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
As we enter this New Year I give thanks that God values me. That I stand before Him, not as insignificant and worthless, but as one who He wants to have a relationship with and as one who is 'crowned with glory and honour'. I have no idea what the coming 12 months have in store for me, but I pray that I will do all I can to try and learn about Him and listen to what He has to say to me.
