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As We Welcome 2017

The Gate of the Year

It's a tradition here on New Year's Eve to run a graphic featuring an excerpt from the lovely poem God Knows - commonly known as The Gate of the Year - written in the early part of the 20th century. (This year's photo was made at the Morton Arboretum in Chicago earlier this month.)

Following is the poem in its entirety:

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 into 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.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

May we all put our hands into the hand of God as we prepare to step over the threshold into 2017. Wishing you happiness and God's peace in the new year.  

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