It is Christmas week, and everything is happily upended in a flurry of wrapping paper, sweets, happy greetings, gatherings, and the otherwise controlled chaos my large family generates– along with the refining always imminent as we rub against each other in the day to day with holiday routines (or non-routines) at play.
The year turns the pages on final days. The New Year comes…
5 And khe who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I lam making all things new. Revelation 21 ESV
New. The crisp, clean page. The fresh start. The New Year. Something so fresh and invigorating – in the shift of numbers; the change of dates.
I am not one to eagerly, loudly harken a new year with anticipation– too prone am I to dread and fear. But deep instead, there is the irresistible tingle and the joy in the new. I trust each day to the Lord and seek to take small steps in Him faithfully. I want to give Him my New Year and trust Him to make me new.
2 yBless the LORD, O my soul,
and zforget not all his benefits,
3 who aforgives all your iniquity,
who bheals all your diseases,
4 who credeems your life from the pit,
who dcrowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who esatisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like fthe eagle’s. Psalm 103 ESV
Psalm 103. The comfort and peace flows.
These words: forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies, renews.
Most of all- to me- right now: renews. The restoration sings from the Psalm and how blessed the people of God are to have the life-giving regeneration and restoration of God at work in this life.
As I struggle on the other side of Christmas, but entering the hopefully quiet pause of “break week’- a time to evaluate, reflect, prepare, and ponder- this verse ministers to me:
4 For he knows our frame;1
he sremembers that we are dust. Psalm 103 ESV
I utterly cast myself upon the mercy and full understanding of God. I am dust. It is good to rest in my finite weakness and know Him to be God. The reading from Job fully emphasizes this as God answers Job out of the whirlwind and begins to develop the greatness of His Own Expanse and Infinite knowledge. It is beyond comprehension- and it is in worship, I ponder.
I will be small and reflective in this quiet week before “new” is before me: New Year; New Semester; Specific New Changes in my family’s life; New Choices, Focus, and Habits.
He makes all things new. Praise be.
Thank You, Lord for bringing life in every area. Help me walk with You. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Rebecca (offeringsbecca)
Sixty-six books in a year 