I did that “end-of-the-year/beginning-of-the-year” thing last night. You know, when you take the old calendar and transfer all the important dates like birthdays and anniversaries over onto the new one? (I was a little late, but that’s because I was delayed getting back home after the winter weather up north. But that’s another story for another time.)

It’s sort of a ritual for me. And usually I’ll write a blog about looking at all the blank days of a fresh calendar and how I wonder what they’ll be filled in with by the time we get to the end of the year. But something different struck me last night.

I spent more time looking at the old calendar. The one from the past year.

I saw things I’d documented on it. Things like dinners with friends and meetings at church and out of town travel and parties and movies and happy days. I saw sad things, too. Things like a memorial service for a friend. Things that got crossed off because they didn’t really happen as planned.

And I realized that I could look forward to the new year because God had been faithful in the past one. He’d been faithful on the happy days. And faithful on the sad ones.

I heard the song “Be Still My Soul” last night while driving home from church. The second verse says,

“Be still my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.”

God will undertake to guide this new year, just like He did with the past one. And so that old calendar represents not just 12 months of my life, but 12 months of God’s faithfulness.

This year I’ll present the new calendar to God and ask Him to guide each day represented by a presently blank square. But I’m also presenting the old one to Him. With a grateful heart.

He’ll guide the future, as He has the past.

I will remember the works of the LORD;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. Psalm 77:11

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2