Something New

A brand new year, a clean slate, a new perspective. Like fresh fallen bright new snow (I can still dream if these mild temperatures won't give us any)... it awakens our senses to new hope and abundant life. I love it. My heart races with excitement of what God will bring this year! This week I've had the sense of there being something on the horizon, even if we can't see it. I just felt like playing the praise tunes a little louder and putting a dance in my step. Ridiculous as it may seem, I just feel a little giddy that God is good and He is up to something.

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? Isaiah 43:19

I praise God that we are not bound by what we cannot see. We can only live this day, today, but eternity is set in our hearts. That tells me that there is more out there than what I know now. By faith I can say that there is something on the horizon that God is getting ready to do. Our God is one who "calls into existence what does not yet exist" (Romans 4:17, NJB). I have reason to hope and be excited for what God will do.

Abraham "dared to trust God to do what only God could do...with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do." (Romans 4, MSG)

This time of year, I love putting together a big jig-saw puzzle. It is only in the past year or two that I've realized how much I enjoy them. There is something about seeing pieces that make no sense at first, then watching them click just so, one piece at a time coming together to make the whole picture. I love seeing the details connect.

This past week, I ventured into a 750 piece puzzle. It took a couple of days, but as we were nearing the end, I was getting really anxious that it wasn't going to work. Lily (our golden retriever) has been known to eat a puzzle piece or two in her day. With all the activity of four kids and a dog, I couldn't be guaranteed that all my pieces stayed in one place. I was sure one piece in particular was really lost because none of the colors made sense.

Life is like that sometimes. We wonder how God is going to work through this one. And yet, in a way only He can do, He makes an incredible picture that we can only begin to see. My puzzle in fact had all of its pieces, and I was so excited. How fun to celebrate with such joy over something so simple!

I've been reflecting, and will continue to do so, on what our forty days of prayer has meant to me. My heart is rejoicing because I feel freed up from some of the things my heart had tangled. Lord, I'm ready for that something new You have in mind. Clean slate, write on this year what You have in mind for me.