New Year
Hey, everyone!
Hope you had a peaceful News Years' Day and I really hope that you are blessed beyond all you could ask or imagine this coming year!
And as we look back on 2014, and evaluate the year gone by, I was wondering…
Can we really say in all honesty, that we twa hae run about the braes, and pou'd the gowans fine? Do you feel this year that we've wander'd mony a weary fit?
Have we?
Really?
Even tho' seas between us braid hae roar'd, we twa hae paidl'd in the burn, frae morning sun till dine…
Did you truly have those in your life that you would say of them, "And surely ye'll be your pint stowp! And surely I'll be mine! And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught!"
Have you seriously taken a right gude-willie waught?
Seriously?
(Actually, I don't know if I have either! Or if I shoulda!)
Let me look it up…one sec…Oh. Apparently that means "to lift a glass of good-will".
Those are all the words to the traditional New Years Eve chorus "Auld Lang Syn". The lyrics are tough (as in, impossible!) to understand because they were written by Robert Burns in 1788 in the Scottish language. But folks sing it (or try to!) around the world as the clock strikes and the ball drops and the fireworks boom at midnight, every January One. Once, when I was in like 3rd grade, we were doing a field trip to McGhee-Tyson airport and just by chance got to meet Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians as they were arriving in K'town. They were some kind of "swing band" from the old Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman days. Apparently he's the one who started the "Auld Lang Syn" thing on New Years Eve at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York in 1929. It went "viral", as we say, and there you go! Singin' it ever since!
It's the only part of "It's a Wonderful Life" that I woulda changed. In the last moments, they were rockin' "Hark the Herald Angels" right when Harry arrived and lifted his glass to "my brother George! The luckiest man in town!" That movie woulda been PERFECT if the last words woulda been, "Glooory tooo the new-born Kinggg!!!"
Instead, it ended with George winking up to Clarence and crooning, "We'll take a cup o' kindness yet for auld lang syn…"
"What on earth does that mean?!"
Apparently, in ancient Scottish, it means "for the olden days" or "for old times' sake" or something' like that.
Apart from all the incomprehensible Scottish words, even the words in that song you CAN understand don't make sense!
"Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne?"
I remember Billy Crystal saying in one of his movies, as the clock struck twelve, and the singing began...
“What does this song mean? My whole life, I don’t know what this song means. I mean, ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot?’ Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances. Or does it mean that if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them?”
That's why I like to wish y'all something you really can get your mind and heart around! I want to wish you a "Blessed 2015!"
Ever wonder what that means? When we say, "Bless you!" at a sneeze…or "say the blessing" at supper…or when Tiny Tim says, "God bless us, everyone!"…what are we really saying?
Actually, in the New Testament, "to bless" is made up of two Greek words scrunched together. The words are "to speak" and the word "good". "To bless" you means "to speak good over you" "God bless you!" means "May He speak good things over you!"
And as it says at the beginning of the world on the Bible's first page, "He spoke and it was so!" If God speaks something good over you, it will be true!
And as the Apostle tells us in his letter from prison to the Ephesians, God "has blessed us with every spiritual blessing Heaven has to give!" He goes on to say God chose us! He loved us! He adopted us! He is always blessing you! Always speaking good over you! He calls you…
"My beloved!" (Ephesians 1:6)
"My child!" (Ephesians 1:6)
"Mine!" (Ephesians 1:7)
Y'know, our English word, "blessed" comes from an Old English word, "bloedsian", which means "marked or bought with blood" And that's exactly what our Paul tells us! All the blessings are ours because "in Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins"! And because of His blood, we have every other blessing as well!
Guaranteed!
So if I "wish" you a blessed New Year, I'm really only reminding you of what you have and always will! God has already said it! He has and will always bless you! In 2015 and forever!
It just makes you wan ta tak a right gude-willie waught!!