I am grateful for my history, and I’m grateful for the history of those who have gone before me.

Today is my first day without any kind of agenda since arriving in Canada… It’s snowing outside, the Christmas shopping is done (at least for today) and we are enjoying just pottering around with Christmas movies on the television.

There is something about this time of year that is just special. I wrote last year that these couple of weeks are kind of like an annual sabbath… a moment for the world to take a breath and reflect on the year that was and our hopes for the year that is to come.

For me, this Christmas and New Year season comes at a point of significant transition. We are in a new country and in many ways making a new beginning: except that we are not. As we arrive in Canada we have behind us 20 years in ministry, 18 years of marriage and a lifetime of experiences that create the framework for our time here.

The past isn’t something to be left behind, it is something to be understood. It is the platform on which we live our lives. Marcus Garvey said:

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

Before I left Poatina, I did a final morning tea devotion where I presented the village with a photo I had come across in a shop of Cliff Caladine in the Poatina Picture framing workshop. Cliff was a very special person who passed away a couple of years ago. He and his wife Dora moved to Poatina in order to invest the final years of their lives making a difference for young people.

Cliff and Dora are no longer with us, but their legacy, and the legacy of many others has created the platform on which Poatina is built.

Also before I left, a friend, Ron Clarke, gave me a DVD he put together of some of the most precious moments from Fusion conferences in the early 90’s. It is fascinating to see Poatina being talked about as a possible future, and to see what has, and hasn’t changed since then. With Ron’s permission I took the opportunity to make a copy of the video. (I’ve embedded it in this reflection so you can see what I am talking about.)

I based the morning tea devotion on Isaiah 51:1

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn”

There is something important about knowing where you have come from. Edmund Burke said;

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

Every year I love taking these few weeks to reflect. This year that reflection seems somehow more important as I am reflecting not only on the past 12 months, but the past 20 years.

I am grateful for my history, and I’m grateful for the history of those who have gone before me.