Happy New Year!  What an amazing year it has been!  As I look back on 2007, I am most grateful for the fact that all the different experiences the Lord allowed in my life this year all seemed to intersect and result in a deeper amazement of who He is! As I sit on the edge of 2008, looking back to 2007, I can only whisper the words "thank You, Jesus."  

It hasn't been an easy year.  No, in fact, there have been many highs and lows.  But isn't that exactly where the Lord meets us? His face always seems clearer to me in the valleys, almost like I could reach out and touch His face.   

Even as I write, I am sitting in a hotel room in Waseca, Minnesota, just miles from where my Dad grew up.  His Mother, my Grandma, died just three days ago.  She was 92 years old and her heart finally failed her, after many months of struggling to keep her blood pumping.  She was a retired school teacher - Latin, English Grammar and Literature were her subjects - a lover of travel (like her Granddaughter, Shannon), and a Norwegian through and through. She married my Grandpa, James Fogal, years ago, but he died while my Dad was in college, so I never got a chance to meet him. But then my Grandma (Leona was her name) married a dear man named Edward Bluhm in the 80's.  Then he passed away several years ago. I remember she collected spoons from all over the world and thimbles. She was insanely organized and neat as a pin and had a witty, dry sense of humor.  She used to translate books into Norwegian & Latin. I suppose she is where I inherited my love for travel, language and writing and, I confess, probably where I got my neat-knick tendencies!  

My Dad and his wife, Ann, and I sat on their hotel room bed tonight sifting through all her pictures, selecting special ones that we wanted to take home to cherish.  It made me realize that, after all is said and done, the legacy that we really leave behind is not anything to do with what we have, but who we are.  How we loved.  How we showed kindness.  How we made others smile.  How we made a difference.  

Last week I was leading worship down at Woodmen Valley in Colorado Springs, and Doug Olsen preached on "The Resolution of Legacy."  It was powerful.  He talked about the difference between "memories & recollections" and a true legacy.  The difference is in the mentoring.  Are we just creating fond memories or are we making deposits into the lives we are making memories with?  Oh, how I long to leave that legacy of love and concern for impacting the lives around me. I want to be a good steward of what the Lord has entrusted to me by entrusting it to others, like the Apostle Paul did.  The message truly inspired me...

Between our times spent at Woodmen Valley this last year (life-changing) and the Beth Moore "Tabernacle" study I did, I feel like I have fallen deeper in love and amazement with the Lord than ever before.  I thought I knew Him before.  I thought I loved Him before.  And I did.  But, oh, I love Him more at the end of 2007 than I did at the beginning.  That's the best thing I could ever say about this last year.  I love loving You more, my Jesus!  The more I discover, the more deeply I am blown away...the more life comes into focus.  

And so my prayer for 2008 for me, for my family and for you is simply this...."I pray that at this time next year we will look back on 2008 and say 'Jesus, I love You more now than I did a year ago. I have become more and more amazed by who You are this last year than ever before...I am in awe of Your love and mesmerized by Your cross.'"

If that prayer is answered - and He will answer it - there's not anything else that can beat it.  Knowing Him is knowing satisfaction. Knowing Him is knowing purpose.  Knowing Him is gaining vision. Loving Him is loving the very Lover of your very soul.  Loving Him is loving perfect love...love that will not fail you.   When we look into His face, we see perfection, we see acceptance, we see grace, we see holiness, we see our Abba.  

So, on the cusp of 2008 I feel most grateful.  I am saying good-bye, temporarily, to a Grandma who knew You and is now with You, but I am saying "hello" to another year journeying with my Father.  Thank You, Lord, for the spiritual significance of 2007.  I love You with all that is within me.  You are life to me.