Certainly Not What We Expected

This year unfolded not as I anticipated, but I was assured that God was there every step.  Even in the struggles, I could hear my grandmother's words from when I was a little girl, "Sometimes we just have to trust the Lord in that." Many experiences emerged seemingly out of nowhere, ambushes along the way, but also joys woven in unexpected places.  I just needed to walk with Him all the way through.

And still walking through.

God reminds me that while we calculate according to a twelve-month calendar, He exceeds time in a way we cannot comprehend.  And nothing takes Him by surprise.  God is not a variable.  He is the constant in the equation of our lives.

In His sight, this year is not over.  It is not yet complete.  He whispers to us, "Not done yet." It takes eternity for that. A lot more is yet to come. 

As Oswald Chambers says in his devotional My Utmost for His Highest, "All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God."

We can go forth into the new year, but differently.  In all our experiences, even the difficult ones, God has been equipping and preparing us through the twelve months that we have just emerged from. What has God been trying to make me aware of?  What was God forming in me through this?  We are all different today than a year ago.  We see circumstances differently-- even what is yet to come, even what we do not anticipate --because we see God differently.  We have changed in so many ways from where we stood and the terrain we traveled through this past year.  

It is not just the turning of a new year, but facing each new day, filled with the unexpected.  Even more so, we recognize our need to walk with Him both in the joy and strength of His Presence.

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with them.  He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God himself with be with them as their God......"Behold, I am making all things new."  Revelation 21. 3-5. 

We go forth not fearfully stumbling into the unknown, but dwelling with Him.

And that makes all the difference. We are not impervious to circumstances, but fully responsive within them.  And never alone.  Do not fear.  I am with you.  His faithfulness covers us.

What does this make possible?  

"Often, when we observe from a distance, we misinterpret.  Look up at the night sky and you will see much darkness.  But train a telescope on the blackest patch, and a million galaxies explode into view." (Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity) 

God says, "Now watch this."