Year's End Reflections

 This year is about to end. It seems to have flown by so quickly! As I get older, the months appear to lose time on me…the days between New Years' feel like they get shorter. Once again, another year is ending…and a new one will soon be dawning. 

  I reflect on all that this year has given me. As with any year, there has been a mixture of sorrow and joy. Days of great sadness and loss, as well as days of great pleasure and happiness. 2014 has been a year of changes for me - new beginnings, new friends, new experiences. But, through all of the seasons of life that have come my way this year, I can say without question that one thing has been constant. One thought has carried me through the sad days and the happy days: God is always good. Even in the moments when His goodness seemed distant or His love a bit removed, He has always proved that such thoughts are only my faulty perception. He is always good. I am always loved! Loved by the Sovereign God Himself because He chose to offer me life and hope. There is always a glimpse of Grace, even in the hardest times. There is always a reason to be thankful and to live - because of the One who makes it all possible. 

  I have learned the gift of true friendship: that it's not about the closeness between you in terms of miles but the closeness between you in heart. That the path from your heart to your friend's is never far…even if you live half a world away from one another! The important things in life like faith and family can bind you together in amazing ways no matter how long you've journeyed alongside each other. 

  Most of all, I've learned that a life can be made beautiful when God opens the heart to Grace. When someone is willing to let Him have the broken pieces of their heart, He will turn those shattered remnants into a beautiful whole, an example to others of the healing He brings. He was born to raise me to new life, to give me the opportunity to thank, to love, to see Him for Who He is! Every year is another chance for me to see His gifts, His creation, His evidences of love in new and fresh ways. When I am looking, waiting in expectancy, for His next offering of Grace, the days hold new meaning. The weeks hold excitement and hope. The year is something to look forward to…because of Who is planning it out. There is always good in store. Somehow, I think God must smile to think of the beautiful things He is just waiting to reveal to me in the coming year. And I smile too. I smile because He is good. And I am loved. And the year ahead will, I know, drive these truths even deeper into the core of my heart.