I feel like there's so much to do and so little time to do it. My homework seems as though it has been building up for weeks. It felt like Christmas was interfering with any kind of progress. And when I got back to Caronport, I've felt like I've had writers block with a deadline looming and no reprieve in sight. Today I looked at the trailer and thought of the many things that are still unfinished, and to add to the anxiety I discovered a new leak in the roof or wall in Aslynn's room. The hot water tank is on its last legs and the plumber still hasn't gotten back to me with the last bill from when the trailer froze or the quote for a new hot water tank. There are other avenues in our life that are blocked for us at the moment and we wonder what is going on (stupid bureaucracy!). And the job search is quite honestly scary because it feels as though there is no security in the field of work we are looking to re-enter. I feel like there is so little out there in terms of what I am looking for, even though I'm really not sure what that is. The "crazy life" continues, though there are multiple moments where the crazy just doesn't seem to matter in light of the great things that God is still working in the midst.

Our family is healthy. We are together. The roof over our head is still there and the clothes are still on our backs (even though Micah's knees keep wearing through his jeans at an alarming rate). The heating bill is down and fuel costs less. It is still possible to get all the work done that I need to finish before the next onslaught. We have good friends here and good family support. Our kids are happy to be where they are for the moment and can't think of being anywhere else - except at their Grandpas' and Grandmas' houses, of course. The bed is warm at night and the food is on the table. Sure, there are loans and bills to pay, but God is providing for our every need somehow. The truth of the matter is, He is there. He does care. And He does have a plan. I'd just like to get a hold of a GPS life-map to orient myself as to where we are headed, even if I can't see the whole map.

Abraham must have felt similar to this. So many unknowns, yet he knew that he was supposed to follow. He continued on in faith, knowing that God had a plan. Even when he tried to plan things his own way and try to make it work in his limited human understanding, God didn't allow him to stray to far. He protected Abraham and Sarah when they made silly yet rational decisions based on the circumstances they faced. God was faithful in all things, even to the point of bringing life out of death; a son from a dying man and woman, a substitutionary sacrifice in place of that son, a nephew rescued from God's own wrath against sin and a broken creation. Life in death. And a promise. Yet that promised land, that home, their resting place, proved to be more elusive and misunderstood by Him and those who followed him until they arrived by God's guiding hand, His providence, and by His life given to them by His grace through faith. That promised son came in the most natural and unnatural of ways by God's divine working, similar to the same miraculous work he brought about in Mary when God sent His own Son. The promise of a people as numerous as the stars that Abraham only had a glimpse of through the one son he had as a supernatural gift of God must have still seemed distant, yet possible because of the one who had made the promise had been faithful in the little promises that accomplished the seemingly impossible. God is good. He is great. With God, all things are possible. Including my insignificant seeming homework in light of all of this.

- Mark