As a new year dawns...

It has been wonderful to have our family together for Christmas. Nathan has progressed to the point that he can walk a few feet with the help of parallel bars. But the external fixator remains in place as the bones in his left leg are not yet growing together. The trauma surgeon has said that more surgery (to insert steel rods) may be necessary if the bones don't begin growing together within a couple weeks.

My paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 this New Year: ....Nothing takes God by surprise; He always knows exactly what's up, and what He's up to. He has planted in our hearts as human beings a longing to make sense of life. But, as intense as is that longing to know the end from the beginning, we as human beings cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. So there is no point in trying to peer into the inscrutable. It is more prudent to take each day as it comes--enjoying God's good gifts (from food and drink to the strength to work) as the Lord sees fit to provide such gifts, and trusting Him for whatever tomorrow holds....


As to what this new year holds for us: Much is uncertain, with Hannah and Stacey headed home to Manila, while Nathan and I stay on in Austria. But this much is certain: "We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us, and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us." (1 John 4:18, Living Bible)