Uphill both ways!

Deuteronomy 11.10-12

¹⁰ For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!

These words were given to the Israelites as they were about to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land – an unfamiliar place they had not yet inhabited.  (This picture is not the Jordan; it is the North Platte here in WYOMING.)

Today, we have entered an unfamiliar place we have not yet inhabited – 2012! 

What lies ahead for us?  What new experiences will we have?  What needs will arise?  What challenges will come our way?  What joys will overwhelm us?  What sorrow will permeate our beings?

This unfamiliar place is “a land of hills and valleys.”  So often we wish that life was all “downhill” or “flat.”  But the hills are necessary.  It is the exertion of the climb that makes us stronger.  And, paradoxically, it is the storms that form over the hills that bring rain and new life to the valleys.

Despite the challenges, questions and uncertainties we have, we enter into this unfamiliar place knowing that it is “a land that the LORD your God cares for… and watches over.” 

We enter into 2012 trusting God “through each season of the year.”