We each stand here at the beginning of a brand-new year – 2024. What will this year hold??
We look down the road into 2024 and it is a lot like the road pictured in today’s background photo … there is a nice level stretch, then the road climbs uphill, where it turns around a corner and disappears out of sight.
For most of us, this is about as much as we can see down the road into 2024.
For hubby and me, we have a “sun trip” planned during the middle of the “dark, winter doldrums.” For us this could be the nice level stretch of road near the beginning.
Hubby looks into this new year and all he can see is drama, swirl, and chaos in his job. This could be the uphill climb. Then the road turns a corner and disappears out of sight.
None of us can see around the corner. We can only look so far into this new year of 2024, then the road turns a corner, and our sight is obscured.
For most of us, we have some fears looking into 2024.
Here you can see the gift hubby gave me for Christmas this year … a day-by-day calendar, where you pull a page off each day. From all outward appearances, this looks like a simple normal ordinary block of paper. But hidden inside is a beautiful, intricate paper sculpture.
What does the paper sculpture hidden inside my day-by-day calendar look like?? I don’t really know. I have never had a day-by-day calendar like this before.
But here you can see a paper sculpture from a pop-up card my son gave me several years ago. Isn’t it beautiful! The flat greeting card, by all outward appearances, would give no indication of the beautiful 3-D flower bouquet hidden inside.
The same thing is true with my day-by-day calendar. Hubby has told me that the paper sculpture inside is a tree. As I flip the edges of my day-by-day calendar, I can see bits and pieces of the tree, which is hidden inside. Here you can see, as I flip the edges of my calendar.
You can see this portion of the tree is lacy and delicate, like a Japanese tree, in a pale shade of blue. And up above, as well as below, there are other lacy delicate portions of the tree, in a pastel purple color.
The tree is already there … inside my day-by-day calendar. That is exactly what this next year of 2024 is like. Everything that will happen in 2024 is already there.
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book, O God, before one of them came to be.” – Psalm 139:16
Just as I have never had a day-by-day calendar like this before … so also each of us have not experienced a year like 2024 before. I don’t know what the end sculpture of my calendar will look like. In the same way, none of us know what the end of 2024 will look like.
I know the paper tree sculpture will be beautiful. But we don’t know what our life will look like at the end of 2024. Will it be beautiful??
We know whatever happens in 2024, God is already there and God has already designed the “sculpture” of our life which will unfold.
What will the “sculpture” look like??
I know that it will take time to unfold and discover the tree sculpture hidden inside my day-by-day calendar. I know there will be some days when the sculpture doesn’t look like much. But I trust that by the end of the year, the sculpture will be beautiful! And amazing!
This is exactly what it is like for each of us as we start out on the road of 2024.
Here you can see my Clerodendrum plant at this very same time last year. It was a beautiful vine, growing up a tall support post. It was our “Christmas tree” last year.
As we started the year 2023, I had no idea the “journey” the Clerodendrum would take. I didn’t know that the gnats would become so bad in the house that I would be forced to place the plant outside for the summer.
I didn’t know that, while the Clerodendrum was getting plenty of warmth and watering outside, it would not respond favorably at all to being outside … and that almost all of its leaves would fall from the plant!
I didn’t know that by the end of the summer, I would be left with a bare mess of sad tangled vines.
I didn’t know that it would look as if all hope was lost, as I repotted the tangled mess of bare vines down into dirt. And placed the sad plant in an upstairs sunny spot.
I didn’t know that the Clerodendrum would recover, and fill out with new growth, and be stunningly beautiful this Christmas with masses of delicate gorgeous blooms!
Things look a lot different this Christmas! The Clerodendrum doesn’t even look like the same plant.
This right here is a picture of what 2024 will look like. We don’t know what lies down the road of 2024. There will most likely be some painful, difficult stretches of road. But God will be with us each step along the way!
God will help us … no matter what happens!
And God carry us if necessary!
And God will bring us through!
Just like my day-by-day calendar, God’s plan for our life is already there … hidden in 2024.
It will take time, day-by-day, to uncover and discover. Some days the “sculpture” of our life may not look like much. But we trust God … that He has designed and placed the “sculpture” of our life exactly according to His will!
And no matter what lies down the road of 2024, the “sculpture” of our life is designed to bring praise and glory of God!
