The King’s Speech and the Gate of the Year – Truth For Uncertain Times

We have just stepped through the gate of the new year. The blank canvas of 2026 lies before us. What will we paint on it? What tapestry will we weave as we journey through that space of time?

Every year at this time, I am reminded of the poem written by British poet Minnie Louise Haskins

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East”.

‘The Man’ exhorts us to put our hand “in the hand of God”, but the question is ‘For what?’ Will we take God’s hand to lead Him down the path of our plans, asking Him to bless us as we go, bless us as we paint what we want on the canvas of 2026? Or-

As we pass through the ‘Gate of the Year’, will we take His hand willing for Him to lead us into the valleys, to climb the mountains on the route He has chosen for us for the building of His Kingdom? It may well be, and probably will be, that God will lead us in ways we neither expect nor like. This is the God of the Bible as was shown in Jesus’ words to Peter –

“When you are old you will stretch out your hands

and someone else will dress you and lead you

where you do not want to go”.

                                                      John 21:18

Whose picture will we be painting, God’s or ours, on that as-yet-blank canvas of time which is, as an ancient phrase quaintly puts it, ‘The year of our Lord’ 2026? For it is actually God’s year.

Then again on the bigger canvas of the journey of the church, as we reflect at the ‘Gate of the Year’, will we stretch out our hands and allow Him to lead us into the new things, and yes probably difficult things, that will bear new fruit for His kingdom. Or will we continue the now longstanding, spiritual and practical tug of war with God where we seek to drag Him to bless us on our preferred well worn, yet largely Kingdom-unfruitful comfortable paths of yesteryear.

Indeed, it is time to reflect as to what we will paint on that blank canvas of time we call 2026, as we pass through the “The Gate of the Year”.

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Words of Truth and Hope

In December 1939, King George VI was Britain’s reigning monarch.  As was the custom, the king addressed the nation on a BBC radio broadcast on December 24th.  It was his  annual Christmas eve message, and in the uncertain last days of 1939 the king spoke words of peace to calm his people. He reminded them of the only true King, the One who can provide true peace and real rest in such troubled times.  As King George concluded his message of encouragement, he read the preamble of a poem that had been brought to his attention by his young daughter, Princess Elizabeth.

Princess Elizabeth was only thirteen years old in 1939.  The poem that she brought to her father’s attention was written by British poet Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957).  Published in 1908 and titled  God Knows, the poem was part of a collection of poems in a book titled The Desert.  Years later, this poem gained popularity with a new thope

The title, The Gate of the Year, taken from the poem’s first line.

King George read the poem’s preamble to reassure the British people that their future was secure….in the hands of God.

The poem’s wisdom was true on that Christmas Eve in 1939 and it is true for us today. 

As the new year dawns, let us remember that God is our only safe harbor. He is our only true hope. He will lead and direct our lives, when we put our trust in Him.  He will light our path as we enter into the new year whatever may befall, and He will direct our steps through the unknown future of 2026.