As we approached the end of January, the days finally resembled a New Year as several people had passed on the blessing of a “Happier New Year.” The Catalina Mountains surrounding our desert community became a winter wonderland with a powdered sugar dusting of snow. When those white flakes fall from heaven, I inhale refreshment and exhale all the burdens that have been clinging to me from the past year–or longer. I am so driven to taste this refreshment that hubby and I skirted the mountain’s edge in our car, snapping one shot after another to remind me of how it feels to be washed by pure white snow as a cleansing from God.

David begs God to cleanse him with hyssop in Psalm 51 and wash him that he might be whiter than snow. Here David is referring to his sins that have separated him from God. But I envision the snow that has graced us this year as a cleansing from the horrific year we endured in 2020. The snow was God’s hand breathing New Life into me, cleansing away the worries, the fear, the pain of the year past.

This, by no means, magically erases the issues, the illness, or the events of the past year, but it infuses me new hope for this year. God’s word encourages me that He controls this year with His word.

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth and making it bud and
flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for
the eater,
so is my word that goes out
from my mouth:
It will not return to me
empty,
but will accomplish what I
desire
and achieve the purpose
for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10&11 NIV

Most of us start the New Year perceiving it as a clean slate on which to write our purposes, our goals, our resolutions for the next year. Somewhere after scratching down our thoughts, we slip. Whether it’s the next day, the next week, or the next month we find it difficult to sustain our heartfelt promises of New Life for the New Year. Today, God placed a new slate in front of me. One that will bring refreshment every day just as that new-fallen snow on the scruffy desert brush. He said:

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3 NIV

Now that’s a promise I can trust whether new-fallen snow dusts our majestic mountain terrain or the temperature soars to 110 degrees.
His word stands trustworthy as well when political tornadoes whirl around us or diseases continue to plague our land. There remains the refreshment of new-fallen snow because God’s word will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it, and He will establish the plans we set before Him.

From My Heart to Yours,
Janis Van Keuren

Linking with: Blue Cotton Memory, Mary Geisen, Let’s Have Coffee,
Inspire Me Monday, Welcome Heart, Being Woven, Share a Link Wednesday,
Grace and Truth, Faith on Fire