Ah, January. You are almost over. It’s a hard month–so easy to fear the emotional memories of that January two years ago when things were getting so bleak.

So I remembered when I could and pushed away when I could not. I dreaded the cold, dark days, but I walked right into them. I have survived (mostly) and thrived (a little.) I continually spoke truth to my soul, and tucked in close under the shelter of the One who made January and me and all of my days.

The north wind blew, but I am safe. Always safe.

I’m learning so much about the keeping power of God. I had always thought that safety was a physical thing, a bodily protection. But it is so much more.

A kept soul. How I love the truth of that. No experience, no fear, not one thing in my past or future can remove me from the promises of a faithful God.

He keeps my soul.

That is the song I sing, through joy and blessing and the pleasure of His presence. Through disappointment and grief and unknown future.

No matter what, I am always safe. He keeps my soul.

The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. Psalm 121:7

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. I Thessalonians 5:22-24

 

 

 

 

 

In December of 1939, Great Britain was at war. Uncertainty and fear were daily companions as air-raid sirens pierced the air. King George IV was England’s reigning monarch, and on Christmas day he quoted from this poem as he comforted his people by acknowledging the true Sovereign and His control over the coming year.

We who know Him as Sovereign and Savior can trust Him as Ruler and Guide.

We can trust Him in all the unknown, in all of the darkness. We can peacefully place our hand in His.

The Gate of the Year by Minnie Louise Haskins

God Knows  

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention. 

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.