Even in this age of Google maps and GPS-enabled technology in our vehicles, I still look for mile markers.
Navigational systems and computer-generated maps are handy tools for travel, but there’s nothing like seeing those unpretentious green signs that inform you firmly and without electronic fanfare that you’ve reached a certain point in your journey.
Family photographs provide those mile-markers for us, don't they?
I had so much I wanted to share with you in this final post of the year, but just hours ago came the sobering news of an unwelcome mile-marker in my life - the swift passing into eternity of my beloved Aunt Joan, the last of my six aunts. Mike and I have scrubbed pre-Christmas plans and instead will head north to Rockford, Illinois, this week to celebrate Joan's life.
But before we leave, here are mile-markers of a joyous kind: photo greetings from our family to yours of the "Look how they've grown!" variety.
Mile markers chart our life journeys and renew our resolve for the many miles yet to come.
For many of us, this year’s path has been one of ruts and rocks, relinquishment and loss. Two thousand years ago, a young couple undertook an arduous journey to a destination they did not choose that promised no pleasant inn at the end.
There would be no star to guide them as for wiser men.
But they had each other and – such wonder – they had Him: God the Father to go before, God the Son to carry within. And so do we.
Wherever your road leads in 2024, may God go before you and Christ within you – the hope of glory.
With every blessing for the New Year, and so much love.
Maggie
(PS - Robin Benton of Eatenton, Georgia, is the winner of last week's giveaway - a hardcover edition of Ann Voskamp's Christmas classic The Greatest Gift. Congratulations!)