Not my Yesterdays

One of my guilty pleasures is watching reality shows like The Bachelor and American Idol. Jordin Sparks won American Idol this season-she deserved it! One of the songs she sang for the finale had a line that went something like "I am made of more than my yesterdays." I think that this is a very true line. I always get very nostalgic when I spend time at home. I was looking throug my high school year book the other night and reading over all the notes people wrote to me. "Call me next year," "Keep in touch," "make sure you come back and visit," "Best friends forever"! Were we that naive at 18 years old to think that life could stay the same? Did we really believe that our best friends at the time would be our maid of honor and bridesmaids in our future wedding? Were our boyfriends really "meant to be"? Was it really true love? Was the world really ours to conquer?

6 years later I know that none of these things are actually true. My best friends are not anyone from high school. "True love" is very different as a 24 year old than as an 18 year old. While I do think the world holds potential for my future, I've also witnessed how the violence of this world can physically consume people from my past (i.e. Iraq). I've learned from my yesterdays but I am so glad I am not made of them! I'm glad that I am not who I was back in high school.

I have this awesome picture tucked into the front cover of my Bible. I cut it out from a church bulletin sometime last summer. It's a picture of God's hand with a person standing in it with a ray of light illuminating that person. When I first saw it, it just struck me. It is a perfect illustration of our dependence on God for our very lives. We literally are living out of the had of our gracious God. It reminds me of a verse from Psalm 145 that says that God opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. That's it- He opens his hand and we are satisfied! Now that is a powerful God!

In His Mercy...