February is here

Each year I make a calendar to give to the members of our family for Christmas.  I use mostly my own photography (sometimes a little of Laura's gets mixed in), and I try to come up with a meaningful word, phrase, or Bible verse to headline each month.  I put family members' pictures on their birthday date squares, as reminders.

The roses above are part of the design I made for this year's February calendar page.  I grew them in Illinois, and they brought such joy to my heart.  Such joy.

Originally, I thought these calendars would be a lovely point of connection.  Although we live in different places, far from one another, if we all had the same calendar, we could put it up and look at it in our different locations and have this similar thing that we were all seeing as our days passed. 

I'm not sure whether the kids use theirs.  We are mostly a post wall-calendar society these days.  Google calendar, with its handy auto-notifications, saves the day more often than not, and is the go-to for tracking what we need to accomplish.

My life is a jumble these days.  Nobody ever told me that life just keeps getting harder.  I always thought that there would be a point at which we would come out on a smooth plain, and rejoice.  Well, there is.  But now I know that the smooth plain is in heaven, and there will be rocky roads until we get there.  Most days I am at peace about it, learning to pray, "Lord, Your will be done," and truly mean it.

We moved to North Carolina for relief from harsh winter weather (among other things, but yes).  This past January, I spent two weeks in Minneapolis, which was quite a paradox.  Move from Illinois to North Carolina to escape winter weather, and then go to Minnesota for January.  If you've ever been in Minnesota in January, you will know what I am talking about.  If not, you probably think you know, but don't quite.

After I returned from Minneapolis, we found ourselves needed in Cleveland for a week.  Shawn, who had been at home in North Carolina the whole time I was in Minnesota, found himself shocked by the chill of Ohio.  I, on the other hand, appreciated how, although Cleveland was cold and gray, it was still possible to walk the dog on a leash outside.

Winter comes every year, always reminding us that life is hard and nature is harsh.  Winter is a kind of death symbol, a season when light, warmth and growth recede in the face of brittle ice and lengthy nights.

The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone and we fly away.
~Psalm 90:10

"In this world you will have trouble," said Jesus. "But take heart!  For I have overcome the world."
~John 16:33

He has overcome.  In Him, we can have peace (also from John 16:33).

We can have peace because when we fly away, we have a destination.

"Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."
~John 14:1-3

If then you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above, 
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
~Colossians 3:1-4

So we do not lose heart.
Though our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light and momentary affliction
is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen,
but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient,
but the things that are unseen are eternal.
~2 Corinthians 4:16-18

We were not made for death.  We were made for life, and God holds out to us the nail-scarred hands of Jesus, dripping with His priceless blood that opens to us the floodgates of the water of life.  True life is on the other side of this existence, but without faith we cannot lay hold of it.

Without faith, we will never receive eternal life.  And faith comes from God; it is His gracious gift, offered freely to all who will believe.  How does this even work?  We need faith in order to believe, and we must believe in order to receive the gift of faith.  It's a complete paradox, an unsolvable riddle, but the answer must lie in God Himself.

God is the Source of everything and He holds all things together (Colossians 1:16-17).  Everything comes from Him.  We come from Him.  And our faith comes from Him.  In our own frame of reference, with our limited powers of perceiving and understanding, it seems that we make the choice to believe and follow Him, and so we do.  But every right step we ever take, we take only because He first ordained it.  We can do no right thing outside of His grace.  I'm not even sure whether we can do any wrong thing outside of His grace, but I am absolutely not qualified to get into that.

All I know is that our hope is in Him, and He promises us an eternal future of glory that surpasses our wildest imagination.

Our hope is in Him.  On Him we have set our hope (2 Corinthians 1:10).

He is merciful in love.

He is almighty in power.

He is steadfast in faithfulness.

I pray that God, the source of hope, 
will fill you completely with joy and peace.
Then you will overflow with confident hope,
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
~Romans 15:13

I know I keep coming back to this, but I need to.