The end and beginning of a year tends to make me feel a little schizoid – part of me knows that today, January 1st, has no distinct quality and yet, part of me, yearns that this day brings promise and hope of new beginnings. The solution, the resolution? Maybe to embrace the excitement of the first day of the year but to continue it prayerfully in every succeeding day. May this be mine and your blessing this year. The Lord knows… we need it.

Below the video is the passage from Genesis 17 and the Sanskrit Proverb.

Genesis
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”