It’s interesting that New Year’s Day is smack dab in the coldest, darkest part of winter. Yet New Year’s Eve is coming, and we’re sniffing the air for newness and fresh starts. We’re closing the door on the past year and opening the one brimming with possibility. We’re about to party like it’s 2018!

I look at my perennial garden. It’s dormant—just a bunch of grayish-brown stalks sticking up through the snow. No tender green sprouts anywhere. But dormant doesn’t mean dead. It means that stuff is happening in unseen places. It means that this is waiting time, letting the preparation do its thing. The end result will be brilliant color, vibrancy, health.

As we prepare for the New Year, let’s accept the process. Let’s use the winter of life to look forward to the sprouts to come.

If we’re happy, sprout-anticipation is icing on the cake.
If we’re grieving, maybe it’s true that weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
If we’re nervous, we can know that battles will be lost from time to time, but God has already
won the war.
If we’ve fallen down, we can get back up.
If life has disappointed, we can know that’s it’s not about how we started, but how we can finish.

May your 2018 bring a little green sprout soon. And hopefully, a whole field of them.