In With the New

Here we are in 2019. Not much has changed, really. The shift from December 31 to January 1 wasn’t actually a definitive one. I woke up the same person. Time will continue to slip by at the same rate. I still have the same responsibilities to complete, the same mail waiting to be opened, the same bills to pay. I also still have the same precious friendships to invest in, the same delights to be shared, holiday baked goods lingering on my counter.

And yet. The new year always feels like a watershed. It’s a time to reflect on the last 365 days of life. It gives a sense of nostalgic fondness for the good moments. It offers a sense of release from the struggles, a sense of hope that the next year may hold something different. It’s a moment when I stand fully aware and awake to the threshold of possibility. In that sense, it does become an important mark of time, a moment to pause, a moment of anticipation.

The year 2018 was mottled with some of my deepest pains and greatest joys. Oh, the range of human emotion one can experience in such a short time. After all the tears we’d cried, my eyes closed on the year with a sense of abundance and hope of all that is to come. I do not take this for granted.

The year 2019 will be a big year for us. We will welcome our first child into the world (in just a few weeks!). I will finish my first book manuscript. So much “birth,” so many new beginnings. And these are only the things we can plan for in advance! Today, I stand on this threshold hopeful and thankful, wanting to steward well and live fully these joys entrusted to me.

In all that is to come, my prayer for you today is that you can see God’s faithful presence with you - in the joy, in the sorrow. That He meets you in unexpected places. That, whether you look out over this year with anticipation or trepidation, you know in the deepest parts of your being the love He has for you.

Happy New Year, friends.