Up to the Light – #102

The end is drawing near.

The beginning is approaching.

The same remains.

Time continues on.

And so it begs the questions – what ends, what begins and what remains?

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These are the three questions that have been filling my mind these last few days.

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After packing Christmas things away, I always leave my house bare. Although I love the house decorated with evergreens, lights and manger scenes, I need it empty for a time. Just the remaining shelves, just the remaining mantel and just the remaining open space. It’s almost as if my mind is exhausted from all the “extra” in our house and in response, I need it stripped bare. After a few days of this, I begin to replace items on the shelves, mantel and spaces, but they aren’t the same items from before. I rearrange, I move, I shift, I create.

This is a metaphor for an end of the year reflection as well as a pondering of what lies ahead.

Some things need to end, be packed away and finished. 

Some things need to remain. 

Some things need to be shifted, rearranged, created and begun. 

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I am holding this past year up to the light, the light which is Christ, and asking myself in the presence of Almighty God, what needs to end, what needs to remain and what needs to begin.

God is being faithful to answer. 

Would you join me in reflecting on 2022 and consider what is to come for 2023? 

It is time to hold all parts of you – your relationships, your job, your schedule, your social media usage, your parenting, your marriage, your commitments, your time and how it is spent, your mental health, your physical health – up to the light. 

What needs to end?

What needs to remain?

What needs to begin?

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A blessing for you as you contemplate: 

May God, who has ordained all your days, give you clarity, discernment and wisdom as you hold your life up to the light, Him, moving forward into the new year of endings, remainings and beginnings. 

May the endings bring peace, the remainings bring steady comfort and the beginnings bring eager expectation of how God will move in you and through you. 

And may God receive all the glory.

Thanks be to Him.