“He is my Savior. He is my King. And I will follow Him forever.”

Every moment is a gift. But this moment…this moment is a treasure…it is a promise. I’m forever grateful to have shared it…this very specific, definitive moment, with my Calla three years ago today. I think back to all the discussions about Jesus and about baptism and faith we had with our sweet girl…

It’s the last day of 2021 and I’m naturally feeling reflective.

This time last year, Crystal and I were still finding our feet beneath us. We were determined to follow Jesus forward, but reeling from wave after wave of grief upon grief. We left 2020 feeling unwanted and crushed, misunderstood and confused, but entered 2021 with a fledgling, hopeful grip on a beautiful, God-given mission to call and equip fellow wayfarers to deeper living, eyes fixed on Jesus and hearts set on Heaven.

Throughout this year we have continued to learn to cling tightly to the truth we have been taught and to hold everything else loosely. We’ve faithfully leaned into the work of discovering the shape and the scope of the ministry God is building with us. We’ve humbly stood with our hands open before God, trusting Him to fill them, determined to do His will, and believing that on the other side of obedience is blessing.

This has been a year of God reminding us that He is far from finished with us....

Grief expresses itself in all different ways in each of us. Ezra’s grief journey is different from Crystal’s, and hers is different from Lilah’s and Lilah’s is different from mine. We all feel our loss differently, we respond to our sorrow differently. We each have varied timelines, triggers and coping patterns, individual ways we face the reality of our circumstances, unique stances that steady us in the storm. And still, we are drawn together by our shared loss, bound together by our common longing and our shared love for Calla, for our King, and for each other.