Baby New Year

A cute tyke, wearing a diaper and a top hat: Baby New Year.

Okay, so we are a week into the new year.

And how are things going?

The Promise of New.

Most of us have probably already “slipped” when it comes to resolutions, right?

Maybe that slippage happened on day 2.

Anyway, this year is still very young. It is still very much a Baby.

As I have been champing at the bit for some things, I have been thinking a lot about children.

Not about having children.

Rather, about the persistent nature of children that resides within us all.

Newsflash: I have struggled with my faith.

Newsflash: haven’t most of us?

This struggle, at least, for me, seems to come down to correctly viewing and inhabiting being a child.

Differentiating between being of “Childlike Faith,” and simply being “Childish.”

The “Baby” of “Baby New Year,” again, pops up for me.

Let’s look at the little guy.

He is a Baby. Yes. He’s a child.

Uncomplicated. Depicted simply.

A diaper, stating his “baby-ness,” and a top hat, to denote the formal celebration of the new year.

The tuxedo of the hope we place at the new start.

Optimism. Simplicity. No cynicism.

We all start out like that. In life, in love, in faith.

Childlike. Trusting.

Faith in Yahshua, Our Savior, emphasizes it even more.

He wants Childlike. Simple. Trusting.

 “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of (The Most High) God belongs to such as these.” 

Mark 10:4

I mean, come on, in all the illustrations and paintings of Yahshua, capturing the “suffer the little children” sentiment, I have yet to see a version in which there is some care-worn child, shooting a distrustful side eye at Our Savior.

Nope, we don’t see that artistically portrayed, do we?

What we usually see if some enthusiastic gif version of this…

The little ones are smiling; they are adoring Him.

They have “the childlike faith.”

Advertising and marketing obsess on selling that. That’s part of what advertising attempts to capture, especially around the Christmas season.

We just came out of it. How many times did you bump up against the phrase “childlike wonder?”

To sell socks and refrigerators?

Uh- okay. I cannot remember the last time I genuinely saw a child giddy over socks and refrigerators.

Never fear, Madison Avenue: selling dolls and toys is a successful commercial strategy that hooks the kiddies, no matter what.

“Childlike Evergreen.”

(I’m getting sidetracked a bit, with a smidge of cynicism).

Focus, Sheryle, focus.

Baby New Year.

We approach it, perhaps, with childlike faith.

Again, we see that “Baby New Year” embodies that sweet, simple childlike faith.

Rankin and Bass did a bang-up job portraying his sweetness in their 1976s stop motion classic, “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year:”

We are sweet. We are trusting.

Our spiritual ears wiggle when our top hats are removed.

 “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of (The Most High) God like a little child will never enter it.”  

Luke 18:17

Indeed.

So, what happens, then?

Come on. You know. You are no stranger to it.

Life. Too many New Year promises that don’t deliver.

Our hearts.

Oh, great! I knew the heart issue would pop up sooner or later.

“The heart knows its own bitterness. And a stranger does not share its joy.”

Proverbs 14:10

Here is where “Baby New Year” takes a turn.

An edge surfaces to his sweet, diapered and top hat self. He is a bit more grizzled.

After going through how many New Years, with or without resolutions, we can get tired.

And yeah, bitter.

This was not our first rodeo.

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

Galatians 6:9

(There’s that heart again. A tired heart).

That’s what can happen, right?

After disappointment after disappointment, we grew tired.

Tired of waiting.

And this, then, can tap into…

“Childish.”

I know. I know. I know.

I am wincing. Believe me. I see and feel it.

“Childish” is about immaturity and impatience.

I feel scripture about patience coming up…

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

James 1:2-4

(Groan).

I know. I’m not supposed to admit that out loud.

But GROAN.

I am officially… “Childish,” then?

I struggle with impatience.

Right now, I am impatient on at least three things in my life.

Including, yeah, “Baby New Year.”

And you probably can relate, right?

Unless you are uber-patient, uber- mature, and uber-childlike?

The “Childish” component of “Baby New Year” shows up for us, and in us, as the battle weary, impatient, tested-too-many-times, cynic.

Now, “Baby New Year” looks and acts differently.

Dark circles under the eyes, maybe.

Emotionally hungover, if not literally hungover (Yay, let’s hear it for self-medicating).

This version of “Baby New Year…” has seen some things.

Happy New Year! (Muttered sarcastically).

 “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  

Matthew 18:3

 

Pleh. Scripture tires us out even further, in this state, huh?

I am not a cock-eyed optimist here. This is not the musical, “South Pacific.” I am not Nellie Forbush.

(I love Mitzi Gaynor).

Anyway, I know that I need to increase and improve in the patience department.

I know my “child” self needs an attitude adjustment, if not a full-on time out.

I know, however, that I just want a cookie.

(Sigh).

 “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of (The Most High) God like a little child will never enter it.”  

Luke 18:17

Yet again, SIGH.

 

So, where to from here?

 

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

1 Corinthians 13:11

 

Understanding. Yes that comes into view.

Reading The Word of The Most High.

Yeah, I note that.

A conundrum of a question: how do we become the “childlike faith” little child, while losing the childishness?

This goes WAAAAY BEYOND “Baby New Year!”

I cannot give you satisfying pat answers. I am gutting it out in the trenches.

But, a pat answer, with varying degrees of satisfaction to our tired impatient selves?

Prayer.

Uh, let’s pray.

I cannot solve this for you or for myself.

But HE CAN!

Let’s start “The Baby New Year” of it all… right there.

(Pray for me, please, if/when you get the chance to. I’m more “Childish” than “Childlike” right now. Being honest).

So, yeah. Where were we?

Prayer. Let’s pray.

ABBA-

I come to You, in The Name of My Savior, Yahshua.

You know it’s a new year.

You know where I stand as Your Child.

Forgive me if I am “childish,” instead of “childlike” in faith and trust concerning You.

You know I need so much help here.

My heart is tired and impatient.

I want things for this new year. I wrestle with feeling confident that they can happen for me.

What are Your Plans?

Help me to fully be Your Child.

Heal me and help me. Forgive me for every sin, especially the ones coming from a childish perspective.

I need You.

I cannot do anything without You, including live my life in this New Year.

Be powerfully present in it then.

I give this year to You. I give myself to You.

You can make this year a happy one. But more than that. I know that You can help be to be happy in You.

Don’t stop until You achieve that for me.

Thank You.

I receive it, by faith, In Yahshua’s Name.

Amen.

Happy New Year!

Copyright © 2026 by Sheryle Cruse