I have an affinity for calendars, new . . . and old.
My new one looks exactly like last year’s. They’re both red with
hardback covers, but of course, my new one is pristine and doesn’t have old
church bulletins stuck in it, post-its lining its cover, or highlighter
markings leaping off every page. Years ago, I became fixed on one kind of calendar
for a number of reasons. I like a monthly calendar because I can see at a
glance the big picture of how life is going to go. This one is thin, easy to
store and offers a number of blank pages in the back, which I use for keeping
up with my daily writing word count, goal setting, and many other things. I
often refer back to calendars of previous years to check notes.
I know what you’re thinking. Why don’t I keep my calendar on line and
sync it with all my devices?
I’ve been on a ninety-degree
learning curve for as long as I can remember. Please let me keep my paper calendar.
At least I don’t still use a typewriter.
I also like calendars old.
I found this perpetual calendar at an estate sale. The days may be changed
to accommodate any month or year.
It appears to be have been an advertising calendar because it has a
shipping supply company from Kansas City stamped on its base. As you can see, the first year
that appears on it is 1940.
In 1940, WWII was raging around the globe as both Brussels and Paris
fell to German forces. Food rationing began in England as
they prepared for German attack. Thankfully, Winston Churchill became
prime minister of Britain in May.
Here in America, the first McDonald’s opened in California, and Walt
Disney released his second animated film, Pinocchio. Even though the U.S. had
maintained an isolationist stance, the rumblings of war cause President
Roosevelt to create the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
As I scan the calendar that begins years before I was born, I remember
the hand of God in our corporate as well as personal histories. Winston
Churchill would be instrumental in helping the Allies win the war, and the
draft Roosevelt enacted would be crucial when Pearl Harbor was bombed the next
year.
As I hold my new calendar in my hand looking forward to what God might
do in the year ahead, and setting personal goals, I also look at my old calendar
and give thanks that “hither by Thy help I’m come.”
I don’t imagine the first owner of the perpetual calendar ever dreamed
I would have it on my desk and still be using it in 2018.
But I am, and perhaps yet another generation will also find it useful. Like the new one, this old calendar also offers me a picture of how life is going to go . . . that no matter what happens, God will be with me in the future as He has been in the past.
So, friends, as you enter a new year, enjoy your new calendars,
but also remember though calendars are for planning, they’re also for
remembering and giving thanks.
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named
it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (I Samuel 7:12).