"It came to pass"

Brother Jack Scott has reminded me of a long-time favorite phrase that the King James Version of the Bible used 470 times, but in more recent translations has been completely dropped. "It came to pass".
Many years ago as a student I heard an African American preacher spin those words through a sermon, but he added a new twist to them that has stuck with me ever since. The addition: ..."it didn't come to stay."
As a new year begins it's a good way to frame our perspective. "It came to pass...it didn't come to stay. Whatever our experience in the past year, whether good or bad, it's over.
Did your business collapse in 2009? It came to pass;it didn't come to stay. Did a relationship go south? It came to pass; it didn't come to stay. Or do you look back from a more positive angle...Did you hit the jackpot in the lottery? It came to pass; it didn't come to stay.
In the course of human life, is anything really here to stay?
I suspect we all would name some important events or relationships that survive. A couple that you know has been married over 60 years; I know someone who has stayed with the same employer for over 40 years. In my work, in fact, I see it daily...there are church members who have lived faithfully for decades; they are reliable beyond comparison and every faith community has them. Luke mentions one such person when he talks about the prophetess Anna who was present in the Temple when the infant Jesus was blessed by Simeon. She may have been the first to preach about Jesus (Luke 2:36-38). Luke tells us "She never left the Temple..." and these folks come to mind when I read those words.
And yet...there is truth in the scriptures. It is the nature of things to pass on. Death is woven into the fabric of human life so that none of us will escape it. Death, both physical and relational, happens eventually.
So what is there that is eternal? What is it that we can count on that will last longer than we will?
It is the covenant of God with creation. For while it is the nature of things to die, it is also the nature of things to begin again. Nothing comes to stay, including death.
In every death there is life. In every end, a beginning.
Now 2009 rolls into 2010, and depending on how you count it is either the last year of one decade or the beginning of another. Find someone else to argue with -- I don't really care. The truth is January offers an end and a beginning. You know the name of Janus, from whom the name of our calendar's first month comes -- you know that the image faces both forward and back. So be it. It came to pass; it didn't come to stay.
Wherever we find ourselves on this first day that has arrived and will soon be gone, may we seize the day and the year as opportunities to trust in God's promise to go ahead of us. Whatever our lot in life, there will be good and bad. Only a fool thinks otherwise. But what we can count on is the God who never leaves us, who stays. Always.