Joshua Tree Ornament 2019

 Written December 2019

I started out this year wrestling with questions. Big ones, & little ones, too. The wrestling felt unsolvable, and the questions seemed unanswerable, like a really good mystery. But, I was reading Job (and listened to a Piper series), and it really struck me how Job had the ability to see beyond circumstance into God's goodness in all things - God has given? Blessed is He! God has taken? Blessed be His name! Though I would desire my posture to always be so sure, it often is not. So I had this verse on a sticky note, stuck on my bathroom mirror for the entirety of 2019 "...He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.", along with a quote from Paul Tripp, "The best theology will not remove mystery from your life, so rest is found in trusting the One who rules, is all, and knows no mystery." My questions might feel big, but they aren't a mystery to the one who knows all. My circumstance might go up or down, but He is to be praised in either case, because of His surpassing interest in seeing all things work together for my good. These are circumstances not happening *to* me, they are happening *for* me, and that perspective alone should remove quite a bit of mystery, should it not? It should come as no surprise to me, (and yet, I was surprised), that many of my questions were answered this year. That my God is faithful, as He's always been, to bring to the light the idols of my heart and life. '19 provided me a front row seat, yet again, to see firsthand the goodness of the Lord, & the surprising circumstances wherein it is often discovered. To see His redemption, His forgiveness, and His love for His own. I saw answers to specific long-standing prayers, both big & small. It was a banner year, and though it flew by, will not soon fade from memory. I will be blessed for years to come, when I look back on this portion of my life and recall all the ways the Lord worked to move on my behalf, & show Himself strong and capable, and at the very center of it all - slowly and tenderly dealing with me, my expectations, and my questions, leading me to acknowledge as one with first hand experience - He knows no mystery.