one more down - eternity to go

i sat on a folding chair in my driveway this morning
a cold night
drawn out by the sounds of the new year's fireworks
children laughing outside somewhere in this dark
beyond the trees
beyond their bedtimes
fireworks scream
pops and crackles in the cold newborn year
i sit and listen
can't see the colorful flairing lights
only the noise and neighborhood excitement
enjoyment at someone else's expense
my wife and children are in bed
just another day tomorrow
i draw on my occasional black and mild
look into heavens clear night
the patterns my Father once made with light
another year down into the history books
people lived and died
young and old
yet i have survived
by the grace of God
my family well and warm inside asleep
a wind rustles through the trees
i know it's coming for me
it rushes
i can hear countless dead leaves
rushing like waves in the woods
from it's blast
i brace myself for her wintery touch
i never saw the fireworks this year
never saw anything impressive that man set off
all man's glory is but a brief flash and pop
i do see God's handiwork out here
i do see those ancient stars
how could anyone not believe
as the seasons change around us
life death and life again
now we are celebrating the new year
amid a dark and cold night
get back to work
go back to the day in and day out
until we bid another year farewell
one more down tonight
i will look into the mirror
and alway see an older man
tired eyes gazing back
less youth
but inside
i still feel the man i once had been
inside i think
i should not look this way
look the way i feel
the mirror here on earth
will continue to age me
but one day
i will awake to a new world
rather than a new year
i will look into heaven's mirror
see a man i finally recognize
the man i knew i always should've been
a passage of time and life
through the valleys of life i have come
just on the other side of that shadow of death
i'll see that new day and truly rejoice
and
it will not be a night like today
dark and with a bitter chill
behold He makes all things new