Your New Year: How to Celebrate Each “First”

“Firsts” are worth celebrating. A baby’s first giggle, first word, and first steps delight and thrill us because they’re such milestones. The first day of school each year is a big day for our children. First jobs, first cars, first anniversaries – life is full of firsts.

Jewish people have a beautiful custom of saying a particular blessing when encountering firsts, new milestones, and special occasions. It’s called the Shehecheyanu, and more than thanking God for the event, this prayer expresses worship of the God who sustained us through all our days to get us to that particular moment when we could experience its joy.

Giving thanks and blessing God are ongoing privileges, so the Jewish custom of blessing God for firsts isn’t limited to first-in-your-life events; it’s a cycle that renews each year. Jewish tradition calls for saying the Shehecheyanu blessing for a wide variety of first moments each year, including…

At most Jewish holidays, such as waving the lulav on the first day of Sukkot or when lighting the first Chanukah candle
When reading the book of Esther (the Megillah Esther) at Purim
When buying a new home
Upon arriving in Israel
When performing a mikvah (ritual water cleansing)
When eating a seasonal fruit for the first time in the year

Many recite it for personal first experiences each year. It’s a way of staying awake to the wonder of life and celebrating its offerings as gifts from God.

We’re still at the beginning of a new year, so here’s a challenge. Let’s ask the Lord to make us aware of “first” moments as they occur in the days and months ahead.

Firsts In Nature

One way to do that is to observe the changing seasons. Each season brings its own firsts to the year. Your firsts could be noticing such things as:

Spring’s first robin’s song, wildflower, or leaf buds; the first spring rain or warm day
Your first summer watermelon, pool party, or garden-grown tomato
Autumn’s first yellow leaf, chilly morning, or whiff of a fireplace warming a neighborhood home
Winter’s first snowfall, the first holiday lights, and your own holiday decorations and traditions

The opportunities to notice God’s “first” gifts each season are almost endless. May they bring you gratitude and joy and cause you to bless God for sustaining you, for keeping you alive, and bringing you to those moments when He would show you, His wonders.

Other Places to Look for “Firsts”

We say the Shehecheyanu upon seeing someone we haven’t seen in a long time, so look for “firsts” this year in your relationships as well. Among them, you might note and give thanks for the first lunch of the year with a friend, the first holiday dinner you host or attend, firsts in your children’s lives, a first visit from the grandchildren this year, or the first heart-to-heart conversation with a family member or friend.

Firsts-of-the-year in your spiritual life are also worth marking. What about when you open your Bible to begin reading a new book? The first prayer spoken over you or a loved one this year, the first meeting of a new Bible study, or the first time serving in a new aspect of your congregation’s ministry life? Those are worth stopping to thank God for and note His grace in bringing you to receive those gifts.

Your work life is another place to look for thanks-worthy firsts each year: your first project completed, your first affirmation of the year received or given, joining a new micro-team for a new assignment. Depending on your job, you may be marking things like your first class taught, first life saved, first art piece produced, or the first person whose day you turned around because of your kind service. You could even note these occasions monthly or quarterly.

Each of these occasions can be enhanced by taking a minute to revel in them and glorify your gift-giving God. He brought you through many days to reach these moments of delight, warmth, and blessing that He ordained for you to experience. Ask Him to make you aware of more “firsts” this year, and may He bring you much joy through them.