The Threshold of a New Year

This year I'm re-reading the Streams in the Desert devotional book that Grandma gave me for my 30th birthday. This classic devotional was first published in 1925 and updated in 1997. It's been several years since I've read through it, and I'm looking forward to using it in my quiet time each day this year.

The reading for yesterday, January 1, is based on Deuteronomy 11:11-12. In this scripture, the Israelites are at the threshold of the promised land and Moses is speaking to the people.

But the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

Similarly, our lives have hills and valleys. We have tough mountains to climb as well as times of living contentedly in the fertile valleys. As we are on the threshold of a new year, I want to be prepared for the hills and valleys. I took time to meditate on this thought as I illustrated these verses in my journaling Bible.

(I used a page I created last year as inspiration for the illustration, which I drew with Micron pens and colored in with Crayola Twistables.)

I love the idea that the Lord cares from the "beginning of the year to the very end of the year." Here's a closer look at my journaling and prayer.

I pray that the Lord will guide you through the hills and valleys in the coming year - go forward and take possession of it!