a word for the year

Last night, on Instagram, I wrote:

the year of chasing the light in all the little ways. tomorrow, nothing changes except the date. you and I are still going to be the same people we are today. all the little rays of light that were found this year will still be visible tomorrow. the heartache this year has held won’t be washed away tomorrow. I’m grateful for that. even with the pain, I don’t want to forget all that this year has held. and I’m excited to walk into a new year as the person that this year (and the 24 before it) has shaped me into. I’ve put a ton of my favorite light saturated moments this year in my highlights - you can find them under “happiness” and “light comes in”. So many moments of joy. there had been such heartache this year, but I’m choosing to let my year recap be those highlights - those moments of laughter and joy, those ear to ear grins, those early morning runs here we watched the sunrise, the bonfires with family, the moments cuddling on the couch. those long conversations of processing the really hard things with those I love most. infinitely precious and I’m forever grateful for those pieces that have formed a story of joy even in the hardest year. tomorrow, I’m going to share my word for 2021 - it’s already impacting my heart in deep ways and I can’t wait to see how the story of the word is found in all the little moments in the coming year. 2021, we enter with joy and thanksgiving, filled with hope because each year has its own redemption.

2020 was filled with so much joy, and yet so much heartache.

At the end of 2019, I felt the Lord impress upon my heart that my word for 2020 be faithful. Faithful to Him, faithful to myself, faithful to what I had been called to do, faithfulness as a response to His faithfulness to me. In brutal honesty, it’s not the word I wanted for the year. Not at all. Faithful isn’t flashy, it isn’t fun or exciting. It’s constant, it’s intentional, and it’s a lot of hard work. It’s not the word I wanted to encapture all of the wonder that 2020 was supposed to hold. But it’s the word that was needed and it fit so beautifully and guided my year in such a special way. It was faithfulness in rhythms of running the trails and soaking up nature. It was faithfulness in the trenches of toddlerhood. It was faithfulness in tending a garden through 3 seasons. It was faithfulness in date nights each week. It was faithfulness in running a business even on days when I didn’t want to. It was faithfulness in prayer. It was almost all little things. It was little moments that made up a year. And truly it didn’t even feel like it was perfect until the word for 2021 was pressed into my heart last week. 

BLOOM

You see, nothing can bloom unless it has first been tended to. It needs care; it needs consistence; it needs work. Even the wildflowers with no human gardener must have frequent rain or drained soil or bees to attend to them to bloom. Everything requires faithfulness in some form before it can bloom. 

Until yesterday, I never could have pictured the way that these would fit together so perfectly. I’ve never had 2 word-of-the-years connect in such a special way. It’s breathtaking. 

I was reading yesterday, and Isaiah 35 was pressed upon my heart. So much redemption. So much hope. Declaring the dry land to blossom and rejoicing over the year to come.

ISAIAH 35 - ESV

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2 it shall blossom abundantly
    and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
    the majesty of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands,
    and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
    “Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
    will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
    He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 And a highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
    It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
    even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.[a]
9 No lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain gladness and joy,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

So, 2021, I enter expectantly. Ready to BLOOM. In every way. In whatever way. I’m filled with hope.