Here we are again.

Poised at the beginning of a New Year;

probably taking stock of the waning year,

and wondering,

 hoping,

 planning,

 for the coming one.

At the end of 2011 I first came across the notion of looking for a word, 

(or words), with which to look towards the New Year.

The words which seemed to choose me,

(I understood I wasn't to try and choose the word (s), 

but to wait for them to choose me),

were based on the greeting of the angel Gabriel to Mary,

"...you have found favour with God." (Lk.1:30)

This resonated with the eternal truth that

 now  "is the year of the Lord's favour"  (Is 61:2,  Lk4:19)

and I gladly accepted it.

This year has certainly been eventful for me,

and there have been, as ever, ups and downs,

 but throughout I have been tremendously aware of God's favour.

Of course this may have been because I had been more than usually

 on the lookout for favour,

but if so,

 that in itself has done me a favour.

The year 2013 seems to resonate with the word

"Glory"

for me.

I can't think of a more beautiful word to approach the future can you?

Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in 

we can look for those touches of God's glory that are all around us that

I believe Gerard Manley Hopkins called

God’s Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

 I don't know if you have a word or two in mind for 2013

but I wish you all the Blessings that God's Grandeur,

His touches of Glory,

may bring you throughout this

New Year.