In the classic Broadway play, West Side Story, two young people have a chance encounter and fall in love. The major obstacle for this young couple is that Tony is in a street gang that is the bitter enemy of the gang in which Maria’s brother is a leader. Following an arranged fight underneath a bridge where Tony has stepped into the fray and killed Maria’s brother, Bernardo, Tony climbs a fire escape to Maria’s room. By this time, Maria has learned that Tony stabbed and killed her brother. Torn emotionally, Maria can not bring herself to send Tony away.
          Maria and Tony hold each other and dream of a time and place where prejudice will no longer separate people. As they sing the song “Somewhere” , they envision a world where people can be free from fear, experience peace, and genuinely care for each other.
When I listen to “Somewhere”, I can not help but consider the parallels in God’s word to what God is planning for those that he loves and for those who love him.
          In July 2008, I became a fifty-year old orphan. My father died after a fall in his home. My mother left this world in 1991. My grief has been profound and deep. I have experienced this loss unlike any other in my life. Relationships within my family unavoidably are being redefined. A person to whom I would often turn for counsel, prayer, and encouragement is no longer available. Activities that have been a part of my calendar have been erased. The sum of multiple losses has expressed itself in spiritual, emotional and physical challenges.
          I consider my losses and think about other changes in my personal life during the past year, as I close an old calendar and open a new one as I begin another year of life. I also count the blessings of being God’s child, my immediate and extended family, and the congregation of God’s people of which I am a part. And I envision a future time.

There’s a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.

          It is easy to get tied into this world, to live according to the flesh and fail to allow God’s Spirit to bear his fruit in my life. But, if I make the best choice and yield my life to God’s Spirit in a new year, I can fully experience the blessings of being an adopted child in God’s family; a family that is not bound by the physical and is eternal. I do not have to live a life of fear, but can experience the peace of being God’s child. As God’s children, you and I are called to share in Christ’s sufferings here, but we also are co-heirs with Christ and jointly participate in his glory. What we endure in this world cannot be compared with the glory that God will one day reveal in us. God provides a freedom for his children that is glorious and provides fullness now and eternally (Romans 8:12-21; cf. John 10:10).
          Affirming these truths, we can allow Christ to reframe our perspective about our earthly lives. What we might once have considered profitable, we can afford to sacrifice. We do not have to find our esteem in professional careers or exceptional achievements that are recognized and honored by our peers. Our greatness can be the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. What can compare with the greatness of a spiritual relationship with Jesus? Nothing this world offers comes close to the value of gaining and being found in Christ. As spiritual brothers and sisters with Christ, we have a righteousness that we can never achieve on our own but that comes from God by faith (Philippians 3:7-9).
          Because of what God has done for us through Christ’s sacrifice, there is place for us. And, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Heaven waits for us, and we are another year closer than we have ever been.

There’s a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day!
Somewhere.
We’ll find a new way of living,
We’ll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere . . .

          While we wait for the day of our Lord’s appearing, a new year affords additional opportunities to learn. God’s word reveals how we should live and provides life-transforming instruction. Our challenge is to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to obeying and pursuing God. We have to choose if we will fill our hearts with God’s word and insulate ourselves from sinning or if we will pack our hearts with content that will lead us away from God. God has issued decrees that teach us, guide us, and are a source of joy. By giving attention to scripture, we can experience the delight of knowing God (Psalm 119:9-16).
          The Bible teaches us what love is as it reveals what Jesus sacrificially did for each of us. Scripture exhorts us to follow Christ’s example by elevating other’s needs above our own. We are called to deliberately contemplate the needs of other and take actions that reflect who our Lord is and how he has changed our lives. A new year opens doors for us to proactively serve others (! John 3:16-18).
          The new life in Christ involves the development of forgiving spirits. Another year is behind us temporally, but could still be present spiritually if broken relationships remain. Now is a time for you and me to consider whom we might need to forgive as we endeavor to live a Christ-like life. We may need to take the first step in approaching a brother or sister that we feel has wronged us and to caringly confront a relationship issue that no longer needs to negatively affect our spiritual walk with the Lord or our relationships in God’s family. Perhaps we need to “find a way of forgiving” (Matthew 18:15, 19; James 5:19).

There’s a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we’re halfway there.
Hold my hand and I’ll take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!

          Disappointments and setbacks are inevitable parts of life. I can choose to hold onto the pain and can even be a person that inflicts hurt in the lives of others. I can lament about the past and current circumstances of my life. Or, I can acknowledge the past and my present situation, while refusing to allow either to hold me captive. It is hard to drive forward while looking in the rearview mirror. Therefore, I can decide how I will live today. A rotten past does not guarantee a rotten future for any of us. Today, we can focus on the hope that is ours because of the greatness of God’s love and faithfulness. Our circumstances have not consumed us, and God’s mercies remain. God will continue to be good to those who trust him, his compassion will not disappoint you or fail, and God will be faithful to you in this new year as you wait quietly for his salvation (Lamentations 3:20-26).
          Every day we take steps toward God or away from him. As Christians, we can live with the assurance that God has forgiven us and made us his own. We have every reason in a new year to renew our commitment to God and to hold more tightly to the hope that God provides and we profess, because our God is faithful. We need to dedicate ourselves to encouraging each other. As a friend says, “We need to bug the goodness out of each other” as we promote love and positive actions. The Day of our Lord is closer now than it has ever been, so we need to join hands with each other in God’s service (Hebrews 10:22-25).
          There is a place for us. Somehow (through Jesus Christ our Lord), some day (when the clouds open, the trumpet sounds, and Jesus comes again), and somewhere (in the home Jesus is preparing for each of us), I want to live eternally with God and with you.

Submitted to the Gospel Advocate

1 Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
© 1956, 1957 Amberson Holdings LLC and Stephen Sondheim. Copyright renewed.
Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, Publisher.

Let’s answer two questions right off the bat. Yes, I am from West Virginia. No, my son is not marrying my daughter. Good try. I just happen to be the father of twins, a boy and a girl, who were not supposed to grow up this fast and to plan on getting married within the same calendar year – 2009.

I am still trying to lose all the weight from our pregnancy. Where have all the years gone?

No one tried harder to get our children here safely than their mother. She watched her diet, rested when she wanted to be out of bed and being her normal active self, and prayed. Not only did she pray for the safety of the two small babies growing within her womb, but she also prayed for wisdom as a mother, for the Lord’s guidance, and for the eternal security of her children. And the Lord answered her prayers. Some bumps were encountered along the way, an appendectomy half-way through her pregnancy and a missing heartbeat near the end, but soon two long, skinny and healthy neonates were in the nursery at Southern Hills Hospital. The pediatrician “slam-dunked” (literally raised my swaddled son above his head with one hand) my son into my arms, and I was only allowed to look at my daughter in her bassinette until my wife would have the privilege of first holding our little girl.

Dramatic changes occurred quickly. By summer, we had a tanned, bald son that kind of resembled a caramel, Michelin-man. Our boy had more rolls than the local bakery. In contrast to the blonde peach fuzz on our son’s head, our daughter had a thick head of dark, curly brown hair. She was our little Shirley Temple with a much fairer complexion than her Coppertone brother.

I should have invested in Pampers. It did not take me long to join “Dads against Diapers.” As their slogan says, “It is not just a job, it is a doodie.”

Footie pajamas. Thinking that completely unrolling the toilet paper was a game. Throwing a “binkie” from the church balcony to the main floor of the auditorium during worship. Dreaming of growing up and becoming a donut maker in New York City so that he could visit the Statue of Liberty every day. Lace dresses and socks and patent leather shoes. Where have the years gone?

The future dietitian would only eat one sweet in the Brownsville Road Preschool and would dutifully report that her brother ate a sweet during the regularly scheduled snack time and when a fellow student’s mother brought birthday cupcakes – a cookie and a cupcake in the same day!. The future lawyer would explain to me that the reason it was okay for him to kick the little girl across the street was that “He was doing unto her what she had done to him” (for those of you who have heard me preach, you can easily understand my son’s confusion). Should I have known in 1991 what careers these two preschoolers would be pursuing in graduate school in 2009?

Co-ed baseball. One child chosen for the All-Star team and the other asked to play the roll of athletic supporter. One bench-clearing incident – it wasn’t that the umpire made a bad call, but it was a key player that passed “something” other than home plate while sitting on the middle of the bench.

Kindergarten and the school-age years. First year = “Twins can not be in the same class!” Shortly after that = “We want to put the twins in the same class.” One of the twins mastered the “turkey dance” and the other wisely took a more conservative roll in the school play.

Middle school, high school, and college are a blur. They passed as quickly as our daughter’s sprints toward a cross-country finish line or the curtain going down on one of our son’s plays.

Twenty-two Christmas holidays have come and gone. Tonight is the twins’ twenty-third Christmas Eve.

Feels sort of funny. I do not have a plastic play house with misaligned holes for plastic screws that needs to be assembled tonight. Due to my not being too mechanically inclined, I am not perspiring while trying to complete setting up an elaborate toy purchased by grandparents (I used to make rules in the middle of night – “From now on, if a grandparent purchases a gift, they put the gift together!”).

I am not even worried that the twins will try to sneak and see what I am doing. Rather, that little boy is now a young man and that little girl is now a young lady. Both were quite content, to retire to their bedrooms early to speak to their respective fiancés on their cell phones (and both were born in the B.C. era – before cell-phones).

No one asked if we were going to put out “cookies and milk for Santa.” I am not even sure where the plates are or if Santa will even eat the types of cookies that two dietitians allow in this house.

Where have the years gone?

It is hard for me to believe that if the good Lord wills that our twins will be married by next Christmas season. Our family will have increased in size by 50%. Holidays will be shared with other sets of parents who love their kids and their mates just like we do.

Truthfully, I am asking myself, “When did my children start dating?” Where have the years gone?

Were you to ask me to speak publicly about raising a child, my outline would be a lot shorter tonight than when we were anticipating the arrival of our twins. I am kind of like the man who never had kids, but wanted to tell all the parents in the neighborhood how to discipline their children without ever raising their voices. All of this advice went out the window one day when some neighborhood kids did some art work in the newly poured sidewalk of the man without children. When the man without children was caught yelling at the kids who had messed up his sidewalk and questioned about his actions, he responded: “It is a lot easier to raise children in the abstract than it is in the concrete!” I sure do not have parenting completely figured out.

But, I do know this. Our twins have a great mother. They will arise and praise her in the gates. If they have any doubts, they will realize soon enough (to borrow a wise observation from a good friend) that she not only gave them life, she allowed the Lord to work through her to make them who they are. I am in awe of the twins’ mother (my wife) and the awesome work and love she has poured and continues to send into our children’s lives.

And now, I am the father of the bride . . . and of the groom. As a dad, I have no right to be an anchor to hold my children from setting sail. Neither is it my role to step in and to endeavor to navigate their vessels over the seas onto which they will embark. I can still endeavor to point them to the Lighthouse on the hillside that overlooks those seas. Surely, I can pray and encourage them in their souls’ journeys.

I love my son and my daughter. I am grateful that they love the Lord. I praise God for raising up a young lady and a young man that are Christians and who will help our children (their mates) get to heaven.

In a few months, I will have a little less hair and a thinner wallet. Who knows, I may even lose a little of the weight I gained during pregnancy as I anticipate wearing a tuxedo. Then, if so blessed by God, it will be my privilege to watch my son marry a beautiful young lady and to witness my daughter giving herself fully to a handsome young man.

I am content to step into the twins’ twenty-third Christmas. The big hand is now past twelve midnight. For what greater gift could I receive this Christmas than to be the father of the bride . . . and the groom? In this moment, I am most blessed (and grateful that I do not have to assemble any gifts from grandparents!).