New Year’s Eve is a traditional time for reviewing the past year. We create annual Good Riddance lists to burn during the evening. Those lists contain the things that we hated about the year.

This year, we also created two more lists: a gratitude list and a list of events where we saw God at work The gratitude list is self-explanatory. The list of God at work takes a little more thought.

I look back through the journals of the year to find days of unexpected blessing … when I can see God at work. Sometimes it’s obvious: a sermon that hit me over the head and changed the way I acted for the rest of the year. Or a family member who agrees to take medicine needed to improve his life.

Other times I can see God is little acts and coincidences: the time I accidentally knocked a treasured prayer candle I’ve had for decades off the mantle. The glass part separated from the candle and the metal, landing without injury in an empty basket. How did that happen? I think it was God, who demonstrated His presence in the tiny, but deeply important, aspects of my prayer life.

Looking for God in all the small places and the big events is an excellent way to begin 2022. Please join me in having a holy encounter on this New Year’s Eve.