Hello God, it’s me, Mara:

You know, Lord, we’re into a New Year, a clean month, a bright new day. Thank You, Lord. William A. Quayle, in his book “God’s Calendar,” has some fascinating musings about months. Some for January are:

“The Calendar is God’s invention. The matter-of-fact Romans took hold of the almanac and called the months by the names which thereafter God’s months were to wear. God should have named the months – He is so much the Poet; or at least the Greeks, because Poetry and they were friends. Nonetheless, January is named from JANUA, a door.

“January is the cold month, the month of freezing and frost. As the days begin to lengthen, the storms begin to strengthen; winter does frantic battle. Winds careen in tree tops. What glowing stories are rehearsed in January when sleet garments the world in silver. When the sun shines on this ice owned world, marvels are re-enacted before the eyes of men.

“Then the birds are hungry. Music there is as the winds jangle the icy branches of seed weeds like a chorus of bells; but no bird breakfast is there. Then it is the birds grow half tame and feed with the chickens and forget their usual snubbing the folks.

“Then moonlight nights and the rivers where girls and boys build bonfires in their cheeks and in their hearts.

“January is winter at noon. Weather cuts up now if at all. The sense of mastery, cold, cruel, relentlessness is in winter’s heart. It is a menace. Battle to the death is what January challenges to; and the oak trees and the chickadees and the wide-armed elms answer the challenger.”

Thank You, Lord, for a lovely word picture of our New Month, our New Year. It IS Winter and it IS cold out there, but that’s still a great word picture of our New Month. Thank You.

Love, Mara