Gentle Reader,
Here we are at the end of the days of 2023. Well, almost.
It’s also the third day of Christmas. (You can read more about that here. Just please don’t go giving your loved ones a bunch of birds. They’re unlikely to appreciate it).
When I wrote my first post for the year, I didn’t plan on sticking with a naming theme. Really, I just couldn’t come up with a good title for that entry. And then I just stuck with it. I’m glad I did, because as we look toward the freshness of 2024, I do so knowing this: God is present each day. The day might be joyful: graduating seminary, taking a vacation, accepting a new job. It might be awful: hearing your mom say that she has cancer, skidding across an icy road and into oncoming traffic, dazed with the pain of headache and the heat of fever. More often than not, the day is just normal: doing chores around the house, playing with the dogs, reading a book.
God is there, in every moment. Even if you’re so weighed down by grief or stress that you don’t sense God’s being thereness. The Sovereign has not left the throne. The Savior has not abandoned you.
I don’t know what 2024 holds. There will undoubtedly be joy and awful and normal, in a variety of forms and combinations. And God will be (in fact, already is) in every moment. Holding each day, and holding you in each day. How can that be true when the awful remains? It just is. I have no answer fancier than that. I read in Scripture. I experience it. There is no storm or darkness or pit that prevents God from reaching you.
Lord God, we are grateful for who you are. You are a good and holy and pure and true. You are our strength and our protector. You have been with us each day of 2023 and you will be with us each day of 2024. Because of this, we can end this year and begin the next with a smile, even if only for a moment. Teach us to be with you. Grace us with sensitivity to your presence. Cause your truth to plunge deep into our souls. May we be transformed by your love and grace. We adore you, Lord. You alone are God!
Until next we meet.
GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,
MARIE
Image Courtesy of Allef Vinicius