And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).
As I sat at the end of 2023, the new year rolled out in front of me like a blank slate. It should have seemed fresh and new. Yet it was already touched by disappointment and doubt.
Family members I love had been delivered hard news in the past few weeks. Hard news that changed the shape and feel of the new year before it even had a chance to arrive.
In seasons such as this, my small, simple soul takes solace in knowing I have a loving, limitless God.
This new year may be as a book yet unwritten to my finite mind, but to my limitless God it is a story He has long known was unfolding.
My God is “the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:15).
My God is the One who “saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16).
Because of this—in every circumstance, every season, every year—my soul can cry to my God, “even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:10).
Friend, I do not know what this year holds for you or for me. Like all years, I am sure there will be some joy, and I am sure there will be some pain. Only God knows the balance of the two.
But of this we can be sure: “And we know that all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
May the new year bring you new closeness in your relationship with our loving, limitless God.
Until next time,
Shelby
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