Meditate at Eight: Ponderings

Scrolling Facebook posts this morning, I stumbled across a simple question: What is one thing you are looking forward to in 2026? A few people mentioned warm weather or summer, and I understand, especially given our recent dip, but it seems to me that it will change without us ... and then we'll complain about the heat. Some wished for better health. Weddings, anniversaries, and vacations made the list. There were a couple of wishes for happiness.

Still, it’s an oddly timed question. We’re still standing on the thin edge of the calendar, one foot in the year that has been and the other not quite ready to step forward. The ink on our Christmas cards is barely dry. Leftovers are still in the fridge. And already we’re being asked to name our wishes for a future we can’t fully imagine.

When asked what we’re wishing for, our minds often go to the big things. Better health. Less conflict. World peace. A little less anxiety. Perhaps fewer headlines that make our hearts sink before we’ve finished our morning coffee.

But Scripture rarely talks about wishing. It does talk - a lot - about hoping. Not the crossed-fingers kind of hope, but biblical hope. That's the kind of hope that isn't rooted in what but in who. This is hope that isn't fixed in our circumstances, but in the God who has already shown us he is.

On this December 30 morning, maybe the better question is “What will you trust God with in 2026?” What will you release from your clenched hands? What will you dare to place into God’s care rather than try to fix on your own?

The year ahead will bring surprises, some welcome and some unwelcome, because life works that way. Yet we step into the future with a God who has already gone before us, a God who meets us not only at the milestones of new years, but in the ordinary Tuesdays and uncertain moments in between.

Maybe we should answer the internet question this way. We are hoping not just for better circumstances, but for deeper faith.

We are hoping not just for easier days, but for hearts more attuned to grace. We are hoping not just for our plans to succeed, but for God’s presence to remain unmistakable.

Those are hopes worth carrying forward.

Prayer: Faithful God, as one year fades and another waits to be born, we place our wishes, our fears, and our hopes in your hands. Teach me to trust you with what I can't see and to walk patiently into the future you are preparing. Go before me, remain beside me, and shape my heart by your grace. Amen.

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Thanks to the author, Pastor Denise Robinson, from the United Methodist Church.