Come What May

Only four hours left in this year.  My belly is full.  The black eyed peas are soaking.  New Year's Eve dessert is in the oven.  And the kids have high hopes of making it until midnight, though as I look at them, I'm not thinking those eyelids will hold past 9:30.  When I was younger, I rang in the New Year in traditional American style - abundant libations amidst noisy bass pumping through the crowded venue.  These days, I delight to ring in the New Year quietly on my couch reflecting on the year gone by and looking forward with great expectation at the year stretched before me. 

God has a plan for these next 365 days.  And it will lay perfectly on top of my previous 39 years just as much as it will be foundational to the years to come.  It's already a planned part of this tapestry He is weaving.  And one day, these next 12 months will be firmly hemmed in. But right now, the thread has merely been chosen and the needles merely threaded. The stitches begin tomorrow - well in a couple of hours. 

And I pray that I will embrace each one, each moment, each lesson and gift and hardship and opportunity. Each celebration and blessing and struggle and mundane task. Each everything that He gives by His hand that makes up this life of beautiful colors.  I pray that I will surrender to the design, seek His design.  And not try to fight or wriggle free from what He is stitching together. Because I can look back from here and see His divine and sovereign craftsmanship. And it is good.  He is good. So I know I can trust. I can trust Him. Come what may.

"For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed. ... For I will pour out water to quench your thirst... And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children." (Isaiah 43:19, 20b)

"For God has said: 'I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.' So we can say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6)