Heceta Head Lighthouse, Florence, OR
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Someone recently asked me, “What was your best year?” So, what makes a best year? The year I was born? The year my children were born? The year I landed my dream job? Naturally, I reviewed my life like a notable highlight reel. I thought of my days as a young girl spent blissfully on the back of my horse roaming and rambling the dense oak woods of our family farm. With arms spread wide, with a smile to match, face to sky in utter bliss, she could have never imagined what was still to come.
I pondered the flutter in my soul when meeting – the one. The explosion of love that erupted from my heart the moment I held my newborn son. That young mother could never have imagined there would be enough room to love even more when my daughter was born. And when a mother turned to grandmother, there was yet another trajectory adventure!
They say when the date of your birthday matches the age you are turning – it’s your golden birthday and the year that follows is supposed to be your best year. Given that logic, no one past the age of 31 would have a best year! So, is it possible that every year can be your best year to date? My golden birthday was when I turned 23. I was in the middle of a Saudi Arabian desert serving in the United States Army. We were caught in a once-a-century flashflood and I spent the day digging trenches to drain the desert. Perhaps not the most fun birthday – definitely not like the year I turned 6 and my parents threw me a surprise birthday party – but certainly a very memorable birthday.
That year went on with highs and lows. A most notable high was returning stateside to be reunited with my husband on our 1st anniversary! A notable low was returning with lung damage that ended my military career. Each dawn ushers in an accumulation of days that quietly multiply into a year -each one dripping with unknown promise and yes, each year, the low tides have come with their loss and heartache.
Historian and 20th Century writer, Alice Morse Earle wrote, “Every day may not be good… but there’s something good in every day.” I challenge us to see our years in this way too. Like ocean waves, there will be best moments at the high tide and the harder, worst, least, lean times at low tide. Still, each depends on the other as the waves never return to the shore in exactly the same way. We, too, never end the day in the same way as we started. Therefore, the person you are today is distinctly different than who you were on January 1st and not who you will be on December 31st.
Although we are constantly changing, Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Jesus is our rock that cannot erode. He is our lighthouse that cannot be lost. We don’t have to be stuck in the low tides of life because Jesus already washed us clean. His renewal simply waits for you to ask! The love He felt for you on the day He died on the cross is the same love He felt walking out of the grave, and is the same incredible love He feels for you when you come to Him broken from being rolled in the waves or giddy from playing all day in his sonshine. So, I believe I would have to say, most certainly, that my best year to date ….is the one that is still to come…and the one after that….and after that… until Jesus returns to take me home!
