Here we are now in January, named after the Roman god Janus — the god of beginnings, transitions and doorways — often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions, symbolising his ability to see both the past and the present.

I was aged 10 when we moved to Scotland and it was there that I first encountered Hogmanay parties as the new year was welcomed. My mother was not at all impressed that my father had to work on Christmas Day, but the new year brought two days of holiday. As a result, New Year’s Eve has always been a significant time of the year for me.

It is a time when we can look back. Television has carried several programmes reminding us of the successes and failures of 2025. On a personal level, 2025 has been a tough year. My wife has been very seriously ill and in hospital for six months, and visiting every day was very hard. It was the word ‘hope’ that kept me from giving up. Several of the Christmas cards we received mentioned hope as what Jesus’ birth brings.

One of the authors I studied was Jürgen Moltmann. “From first to last,” wrote Moltmann, “Christianity is … hope, forward-looking and forward-moving.” The promise that the future is ultimately in God’s hands is “the glow that suffuses everything here in the dawn of an expected new day.”

In my work, I have met several people whose hope has kept them going through tough times. I think, for example, of one woman who suffered a major stroke but was determined to pull through, and after 24 weeks was discharged from hospital fully recovered. Sadly, I have also known others who gave up all hope and did not pull through. Hope seems a vital ingredient in life.

I have come across many reflections on this. Martin Luther King said: “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

C S Lewis wrote: “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” Zig Ziglar observed: “Always remember that your present situation is not your final destination. The best is yet to come.” And Paul, in the Bible, invited us to “forget what is behind and strain towards what is ahead.”

So hang on to hope in 2026.