A lot of people wake up on January 1st looking forward to the new year. It’s a new beginning – a time to start fresh. To put last year’s mistakes and worries behind you and start over. Just like that new calendar you hang in your kitchen or office, you’ve got 365 blank squares to fill in with plans, projects, and potential!
Then you get out of bed. Maybe with a slight headache. Maybe with a kitchen counter cluttered with last night’s party dishes. Maybe with a house payment due or a project plan your boss insisted had to be on the customer’s desk at 9:00 am sharp on New Year’s Day. Maybe with uncertainty about your job itself. Or your marriage.
What’s new?
And, sweet friend, if you are a parent who lost a child in 2025, the new year can be downright scary. It’s as though someone set this arbitrary date that insists you “move on.” You “get back to normal.” As a grieving parent I have even had people throw Bible verses at me like Isaiah 43:18:
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
That’s helpful, isn’t it? Remind me again exactly what’s so happy about a year – a life – without my child in it?
I’ve written before about folks taking Bible verses out of context. Using them as platitudes to show you how they think you should believe and behave. One frequent verse pressed on grievers is 1 Thessalonians 4:13. We’re admonished that as Christ believers we shouldn’t grieve. That’s certainly not what Paul was telling us. He’s reminding us that we can have hope even in the midst of our grief because we have the promise of eternity with our friends and loved ones who are also believers.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
Back to Isaiah. Yes, God did tell Isaiah to comfort His people with these words “do not dwell on the past.” But it doesn’t mean that the Israelites hadn’t suffered. Hadn’t been through hard, even horrendous, times. Hadn’t lost countless loved ones. What God promised to Isaiah, just like He did to Paul, was a future. Verse 19 says:
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
He didn’t say there would be no wilderness to trek through, no wasteland to wander in, thirsty for sustenance. He did say He’d be with them. With us. We have to walk the path. We have to shoulder the burden of our grief. But not alone. God is with us every step. His Word provides a light, so we don’t stumble.
Happy New Year
Laura
A Light for My Path 
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