Perspective

I am a sucker for a beautiful sunset. They are my favorite of all scenery. I love cityscapes, mountains, and oceans, but they are all more beautiful with a colorful sunset added to the view! My parents rented a lake house for my family for the week after Christmas, just to all get away together without anyone having to host. We took a family picture the first afternoon when we all arrived. As I looked at the sunlight for the picture, and thought about when we would have the most sunlight in the back yard, but I didn’t think about it in the context of having a the possibility of a beautiful sunrise in the mornings. The room I was sleeping in had a wall of windows looking out to the lake and a balcony on the lake side. I woke up the first morning to a beautiful sunrise! I looked out the windows from upstairs for a few minutes. Then I went downstairs to make a cup of coffee. My 8 year old nephew was awake downstairs and he was also admiring the sunrise. I started to drink my coffee and watched as the colors grew more vibrant. My nephew went back to bed so I decided to take my coffee upstairs to the balcony to drink it there and spend a little time with the Lord while I watched the sun come up. As I walked out onto the balcony I realized that the same sunset looked different from the balcony upstairs than it did from just 9 feet lower on the first floor.

That immediately had me thinking about perspective and what the Lord sees that I don’t see. There are a few things that I can look back on and see differently than when I was right in the middle of a storm or on a mountaintop. I couldn’t help but smile thinking about how the Lord must have wanted me to just be patient or not worry in some of those hard times and also how He was so excited for me to experience the mountaintops, especially the ones that I didn’t even know to look forward to. You have probably heard the phrase, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” Usually that is where we are in the midst of our circumstances. We cannot see how the Lord is working, how He is weaving the pieces together, how He is preparing our hearts and the hearts of others for what He has ahead of us. I have always been a person who can see the good in things. It’s not that I always see the specifics, but I trust that the Lord is working and I look for the things He is doing. I ask Him to see glimpses of what He is doing. I don’t see all of the pieces, but I see enough that it keeps me optimistic in the midst of the really hard circumstances. The early part of 2022 was really hard, probably the most difficult time of my life to date. One Sunday morning early in January, I was exhausted. The past two months had been really hard and every time I thought we were going to turn a corner we hit another roadblock. I went to church exhausted. At the end of the service our pastor invited anyone up who was needing strength, to be refreshed and renewed. That was me without question. Together with the rest of the congregation we worshiped, even in our exhaustion. We sang “Wait on You.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4l0-48SeY

I completely fell apart…and then the church did exactly what it was supposed to do. There were people all around me, interceding for me, asking the Lord for strength and refreshing. I left church that day completely refreshed. I’m also pretty sure I could not have cried another tear. The Lord needed a 5 gallon bottle for all of my tears! (See Psalm 56) If I had known about all of the blessings of this year I wouldn’t have had to be completely surrendered to the Lord with nowhere else to go that day. I can’t even contemplate where I might have been if I had known all of the hard things that were going to come in 2022. Although, if I had known those I probably would not have encouraged my dad to buy a golf cart, or maybe I just wouldn’t have ridden on it with my mom driving :-)

So here we are, embarking on 2023 with so many unknowns. I am looking ahead with hope, not because I am claiming this year as mine, or because I am determined to reach goals or anything else that relies on my will, work ethic, or skills. I have hope because the same God who sustained the Israelites in the wilderness, who sustained Daniel in Babylon, who sustained Jesus in the wilderness, who sustained Peter and Paul in prison, and who sustained me through 2022 will sustain me in 2023. I am excited to see what this new year holds and how the Lord will work. I want Him to use me in ways that I cannot even fathom right now. All glory to God, who is able to do exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine according to His power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21