Dear 2013

Dear 2013,

You have been quite the year. Even in the midst of a really trying and painful month, I can look back and see so many beautiful memories. I learned how to paint. I started my own jewelry shop and actually have found a bit of success in it! I minimized my closet and began the process of minimizing various things in my life. I learned how to sew. I moved into an apartment with my best friend. I made new friends. I saw friends fall in love. I saw my sister go off to school in California and my brother start high school. I saw God's grace and continuously saw it everyday. I learned what it meant to be present in moment and love it. I started doing yoga. I fell in love. I realized it wasn't my own, but it was given to live in and be embraced by and recognize the Lord's faithfulness through every step. I took a risk I can't and won't regret despite the heartbreak. And even in the midst of a hard end of the year, I see the Lord ever more present. I still feel His peace and believe in His peace and the great comfort of it. Wherever the Lord leads me in 2014 will be just as amazing. It will be filled with heartbreak and joy, but either way I will grow closer and closer to the one who has always been present. 

A good friend told me the other day she is claiming 2014 to be a year "from ashes to beauty." I think she was right. Beauty and restoration are near. 

Happy New Years,

Mariel 

Processing.

I've been deciding for the last week the best way for me to approach what I've been processing. Now do not assume I know everything I am saying, these are simply the minimal thoughts of a long journey.

Love is a risk. Love is patient and kind. Love is selfless. Love is not ours. Love is never in vain.

That's all I have right now.

Jeremiah 31.

31 “At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

2 Thus says the Lord:
“The people who survived the sword
    found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
3     the Lord appeared to him[a] from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
    O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
    and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards
    on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
    and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
    in the hill country of Ephraim:
‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
    to the Lord our God.’”

7 For thus says the Lord:
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
    and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
    ‘O Lord, save your people,
    the remnant of Israel.’
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country
    and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
    the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
    a great company, they shall return here.
9 With weeping they shall come,
    and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
    in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
    and Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
    and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
    and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob
    and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
    and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
    and they shall languish no more.
13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
    and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
    I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
    and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the Lord.”

15 Thus says the Lord:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
    she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are no more.”

16 Thus says the Lord:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
    and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the Lord,
    and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future,
declares the Lord,
    and your children shall come back to their own country.
18 I have heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
    like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
    for you are the Lord my God.
19 For after I had turned away, I relented,
    and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart[b] yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord.

21 “Set up road markers for yourself;
    make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
22 How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman encircles a man.”

23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:

“‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
    O holy hill!’

24 And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. 25 For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

27 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm,so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. 29 In those days they shall no longer say:

“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
    and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know theLord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. ForI will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

35 Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of hosts is his name:
36 “If this fixed order departs
    from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me forever.”

37 Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
    for all that they have done,
declares the Lord.”

³⁸ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lordfrom the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹ And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰ The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Seasons.

We are all walking through some season of life right now. Some seasons are beautiful and just overflowing with rich goodness and a bountiful harvest. Other seasons may be droughts that leave us longing and searching. Seasons come and go, but the God of all the universe is still relevant in each one. In my western art history class we had been talking about pilgrimage churches, specially, Santiago de Compostela. In in this beautiful cathedral, you walk up the steps to this massive entrance with glorious reliefs of beautiful imagery. There are three portals that you walk under. The portal to the left is on the Old Testament and the portal to the right are images from the gospel in the New Testament, but in the center, the largest portal of all, there is an image of Christ. This middle portal is a representation of Christ's kingdom in the book of Revelation, but what we realize is that this single portal is much larger and in the center of the Old and New Testament because Christ's kingdom has never changed and has always been in the center. Throughout all of history He has always reigned. 
Despite the season you are in or I am in, to simply know that He is still reigning throughout all of history couldn't be anything, but one of the most beautiful and comforting realities. There are really hard seasons of life where we have to "Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly." (1 Cor. 13:13) It is good for us to go through these times. I admire the people around me that walk so faithfully, wrestling God for what truth He is bringing to them in that season. 

Seasons will change, but our faithful God won't.


Here's an image of the portals at Santiago de Compostela. See Christ at the center?? He never will leave that position.

Emmanuel

So I've been doing a pretty awful job at posting. The last several weeks have been a little crazy finishing up the semester!

Despite everything going on, it's such a precious reminder to know that Emmanuel, God is with us.