New Year, New Perspective, New Hope

I've spent time today reading some of the top stories and looking at the news media's top photos of 2008. It seems we always get pretty nostalgic about the year just passing (hopefully we learn from the past). On the other side we wonder, wish, and dream about what may be ahead in 2009. So here on this last day of December 2008 I'm nostalgic and also thinking about the future. 2008 was a pretty good year. I have much to be thankful for. My family is all doing well, I have a great church family, my home is comfortable and definitely an extension of who I am, my business is doing well, and most important of all my relationship with God is growing.

Looking ahead to 2009 is pretty much looking into the unknown. I know very little about what will happen in my life in this next year. I can dream and plan. I can set goals and make efforts to accomplish them. But ultimately only God knows the path that lays ahead for me. Only He knows where I'll be by the end of 2009. Only He knows who will be born and who will die. This lack of control greatly affects my perspective. I can worry, fret and try to have control or I can trust, give thanks and watch what God does in 2009. Life is pretty much perspective. It is the judgment I make about facts and circumstances. It is my view of life. So what will my perspective be in this new year? I want it to be one of hope. Hope for the situations and circumstances God puts me in that I will not despair but trust in Him. As I have gotten older, I know with much more certainty that there is more than just this life. Eternity is a step nearer every day for me and more real in the sense of believing that what lies ahead is way better than what life is here and now. This life is merely a speck in view of eternity. So the hope I have for 2009 is that what I do may not always matter much in this life but it will matter in eternity.

Leah Grace

Children are a gift from God. He is the one who determines what our gift is. He marks out the days of each gift and has special plans for each gift. He loves his gifts so much. Luke and Kristine (my son and daughter-in-law) have a new gift on the way. But this gift is extra special. She is Leah Grace. She has been diagnosed with Trisome 13. This is an extra chromosone on the 13th segment. It is not compatable with life outside the womb at least not for very long. Her life may only exist here on this earth in the womb but she has a life in heaven that is for all eternity. We may know her for a very short time here but we will know her where there will be no end, for all time and eternity. There is sorrow for us here now but someday there will be joy. I have not really asked 'why' in this situation. As I get older I have come to realize that rarely ever does the 'why' get answered. We must trust in what we know about God. He is loving. He does not make mistakes. He has a plan even in pain. He has prepared an eternity that is even beyond all that we could imagine and we need to realize that true living is not here but in eternity. Jesus has shown us the way to eternal life when he said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me".
I am trusting little Leah Grace into the best arms that could ever hold her -- into a loving heavenly Father's arms. That is comfort for me.