December 31, 2019 (Tuesday)
For a number of years the churches conducted a “Watch Night Service” on New Year’s Eve. It included food, fun, games, fellowship, movies, congregational singing, special music, a sermon, and much prayer. As the years went by, however, customs and traditions gradually changed as more and more people gathered in homes for parties on New Years Eve. The “Watch Night Service” probably is an event that has been outlived by other activities.
Robert Burns wrote a poem in Scotland in 1788, and it was sung to the tune of a familiar folk song. We usually hear it on New Year’s Eve. It’s “Auld Lang Syne.” My favorite singing of it is in the final scene of the 1946 movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” It’s sung by friends of the main character George Bailey after they sing, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”
Every New Year’s celebration, worship service, or party includes music. Celebration and music go together. It’s hard to have one without the other. Almost any of the grand old hymns we have sung in church through the years are appropriate for New Year’s Eve. What’s your favorite? The first hymn that comes to my mind is “Count Your Blessings,” and right behind it, “Make Me A Blessing.” (Name the song that comes to your mind without trying to think about it.)
Aside from the music, what are your thoughts about yourself and your Lord as you come to the end of another year and prepare to enter the next?
He came to my desk with quivering lip –
The lesson was done.
“Dear Teacher,I want a new leaf he said,
“I have spoiled this one.”
I took the old leaf, stained and blotted
And gave him a new one, all unspotted,
And into his sad eyes smiled;
“Do better now, my child!”
I went to the Throne with a quivering soul –
The old year was gone.
“Dear Father, hast Thou a new leaf for me?”
“I have spoiled this one.”
He took the old leaf, stained and blotted
And gave me a new one, all unspotted,
And into my sad heart smiled:
“Do better now, my child!
Helen Field Fischer