Darkness, Glory and A New Year

As I was going over my bookshelves—trying to find words to catch some of the deep excitement I have for this new year—a dear, familiar, green-covered book sprang forward to notice: Greenwillow by B.J. Chute. A top favorite, I’m still always freshly and incredibly amazed by its delightful wordplay and rich goodness. And it had exactly what I was searching for…

“Outside darkness stayed, darkness and snow and ice, as if it would stay forever. 

So no one in Greenwillow was prepared for the morning when it came, not in a slow snowy dawn but with the sun shouting up over the hills and catching a million mirrors of ice storm, as if the music from a harp had been frozen and splintered and flung from the west and the east and the north and the south. The great trees were sheathed in ice, and so were the tiniest meadow grasses. Branches glittered and cracked under their frozen weight, and small autumn seed-coats turned to diamond stuff.

The sky was as blue as the first dawn itself, the one that woke Adam, and there was a fresh powdering of snow that had fallen before the ice began to creep. It was next to impossible to look abroad for the dazzle, and the Reverend Birdsong stood on his doorstep and shielded his eyes and felt very near to bursting with God’s wasteful glory and this new Creation. Charity the cat came out beside him, walking very daintily in the cold, looked at the snow, sneezed in protest and withdrew to the warm hearth. Birdsong rubbed his hands together and crowed.” Greenwillow by B.J. Chute

Over the past year I’ve had (and I know will most definitely have in this new one as well) some tough and difficult days—but at the moment I’m very thankful. Longing for some things…but yes, very thankful. God has been very good, and His grace and lovingkindness have been and will be sufficient!

For wonderful things also happened in this last year. Wonderful things that wouldn’t have happened if every day of 2014 hadn’t happened in the way it did. On story (and subsequent blog fronts), I have some tremendous goals for 2015. They’re pretty huge, but so many different areas of life seem to be falling into place—fitting together from disparate pieces to a cohesive whole—that, altogether, I can’t help rubbing my hands together, running from one place to another, and feeling very much like the Reverend Birdsong!

And with this beginning to a new year, the time is also most ripe and perfect for a heartfelt “thank you” to all of you wonderful followers and dear, encouraging friends! Thank you so much for taking of your time to read and visit!!

Merry Christmas (again) and a very Happy New Year to you all!!!