January has arrived!

And ushering in with it is not only another New Year

but the many, many, many, scribbled lists of promises made.

(Usually tied to a resolution for permanent change.)

I have been reading, all across the cyber-sphere, the many, many, many lists.

For change.

For improvement.

For enlightenment.

And I am praying so verily hard that you each receive exactly what you will be trying so faithfully to achieve!

 

Now that the house has quieted down & our many treasured holiday guests have returned to their respective lives, I have spent the past few days enjoying my annual January ‘year end review’ – contemplating the passing of yet another year.

 

I look forward to this time of year.

I truly welcome the opportunity for pulling down from the shelf, yet again, my tattered hand-written journal to write God a letter of thanks for everything (good & bad) He has placed in my life, these past 12 months.  I am always amazed, even in the years wrought by difficulty, at the amount of humbled gratitude I am able to catalogue; as I see clearly how it has all fit together, piece by piece,  always ending with a sense of great hope for what the future holds.

And suddenly I’m making a list of my own.

Of praise.

Of adoration.

Of disbelief.

Of triumph.

Of strife.

Of delight.

Of awe.

Of trial.

Of surprise.

Of sorrow.

Of joy.

 

While writing my letter to God this year, noting the distinctive ebbs and flows of triumph and struggle, I was reminded of something Ernest Hemingway wrote in his memoir, A Moveable Feast, regarding his years spent in Paris as a young struggling journalist.

“By then I knew that everything good and bad left an emptiness when it stopped. But if it was bad, the emptiness filled up by itself. If it was good you could only fill it by finding something better.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

So here’s just a bit of the ‘filling’ that I’ve listed…

Our eldest’s return from 2 deployments, the long-awaited introduction of his daughter to her paternal extended-family, and his building of a new life filling up where the ashes of struggle & disappointments once lay.

 

 

Our daughter & son-in-law moving back to our community, sharing important occasions with family and friends near-by, the exciting adjustments to two established careers, and celebrating the first Christmas in their newly purchased home, as a Mr. & Mrs filling up the 814 with great promise.

 

 

 

Our youngest’s list, (whose heart is as deep as the Grand Canyon,) of infinite good-works at the non-profit for which he serves, the green space workshop(s) he has developed & campaigned tirelessly to implement, his physical accomplishments & emotional well-being and the purchase of a promising ‘farm-to-table’ home destined to fill up many a guest’s dinner plate!

 

 

And the ‘filling’ (for me) has been

the menagerie of all things

faith,

family,

friends,

and of course

Helen!

 

 

 

God desires to fill us with the fullness of Himself.  God’s desire is to make us His holy home. Many times we may feel the Lord calling us into a more holy and intimate relationship with Him. We may feel a deep desire to be filled with all the fullness of God. It is the Lord Himself who gives us that desire, this is His desire also. He adds us once again to His list.  Wouldn’t it be lovely to add Him to our list this year too?

hugs n’ blessings to you when you place Him at the very top of your list! 

(I promise you shan’t regret it if you do!!)

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit.”

Romans 15:13