Joy.

Every year, I take time to study, read, write, pray, and listen for my word and verse of the year. For 2024, my word was Marvel. I thought it would require a conscious, daily choice—seeking out wonder in the ordinary and extraordinary moments. But instead, it became something entirely different.

Rather than striving to marvel, I found myself living in a state of surrendered wonder. 2024 held so much muck for me. The muck of disappointment and excitement, grief and joy, letting go and grabbing the new, and most of all, of things simply not going the way I wanted, hoped, dreamed, or planned. Yet, marveling wasn’t a choice I had to make; it became a constant rhythm, woven into the fabric of my life with God.

I marveled at light breaking through the dark, at the refining process that left me expectant for the good yet to come. I marveled at His presence, at the love and steadfastness of my people, at the healing and growth I’ve experienced. 2024 was undoubtedly a year of marveling—just not in the ways I expected.

Even this last week, instead of celebrating Christmas as planned, I found myself recovering from food poisoning—another unplanned moment that invited surrender and reflection.

Now, as this year closes, I look ahead to what the world calls the New Year (though for me, it feels more aligned with the renewal of spring). I’m filled with curiosity about what God will do next. And the word He’s given me for 2025? Joy.

Not just fleeting happiness, the kind of joy that is inexpressible, awe-filled, unshaken by circumstances. And just like Marvel, I know Joy will show up in ways I could never imagine, better and more loving than I dare dream.

I am headed to the woods and creek and my little family.
See you next year!

Happy New Year, my friends. May you reflect on this past year with kindness and curiosity. May you enter the New Year with excitement and expectancy. And most of all, may you remember this truth: You are loved more than you can ever imagine.

Here’s to a year of living fully in and from that love.

1 Peter 1:7-8 NKJV