We are now more than halfway through the year 2024. Back on December 30 of last year, I wrote a blog post entitled: “Looking down the road into 2024.”
I opened that particular blog post with these words: “We stand here at the beginning of a brand-new year – 2024. What will this year hold??”
As part of that blog post I shared this photo of a day-by-day calendar, which was a Christmas gift from hubby. You pull a page off each day, and hidden inside is an intricate paper sculpture.
I commented: “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.”
I further continued: “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.”
I further continued: “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
The blog post continued:
“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.
“We know whatever happens in 2024, God is already there, and God has already designed the ‘sculpture’ of our life which will unfold.”
The title of today’s blog post is: So … how’s it going?
Now that we are more than halfway through 2024, I thought you might like an update on my day-by-day calendar …
You can now see that, Yes! … there is indeed a delicate, lacy, Japanese tree hidden inside my day-by-day calendar. Isn’t it pretty! I’ve had the best time this year pulling off a page each day.
For sure this year of 2024 has been one for the books! There have been some really awful, terribly difficult things so far in 2024! The start of 2024 smacked our family in the face with a dreadful never-heard-of-disease! We’ve had to come to grips with a life-altering illness. And … we’ve lost someone very special.
I know you have your own list of awful, terribly difficult things which you have faced this year.
Yet … as I look at the paper sculpture emerging from my day-by-day calendar, it’s beautiful! In spite of the awful parts of 2024, there has been beauty as well! Our family was blessed by the beauty of a wedding! Hubby and I enjoyed the beauty of sunrise up at Sunrise, (Mt. Rainier)! There has been beauty in Sunday brunch hang-outs with our family!
And I know you have your own list of beautiful moments as well!
Beauty and pain … intermingled together … day-by-day.
Each day as I pull off a page, the part I pulled off gets thrown away … while at the same time, a piece is kept, as part of the sculpture.
The same thing is true with each of our days that we live. At the end of each day, when we lay our head down on the pillow to go to sleep at night … that day is over. It’s forever gone. It’s like the pulled-off page of the calendar … it’s gone.
But not completely gone. At the same time, a part of it is kept … as part of the “sculpture” of our life.
Most of my days are made up of things that don’t really matter: chores, dishes, laundry, errands, etc. … This is like the part from my day-by-day calendar which gets pulled off and thrown away each day.
But sprinkled here and there throughout our normal, ordinary days … are key components to the “sculpture” which God has designed for our life. We might not recognize it in the moment. But looking back we realize how pivotal these moments/interactions were! They made us who we are! They forever changed us! They shaped us into who we would become!
This morning, as I pulled off today’s piece of paper, I peeked down into the gap around my tree sculpture, and much to my surprise I noticed … there’s a little black & red Japanese pagoda down in there! Cool! How exciting!
I had no idea there was anything more to my sculpture than just the lacy tree. I can’t wait to see the little pagoda emerge over the next few months!
‘All the days ordained for me were written in your book, O God, before one of them came to be.’ – Psalm 139:16
As I stated in the December 30th blog post:
“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. But we know whatever happens in 2024, God is already there … and God has already designed the ‘sculpture’ of our life which will unfold.”
