As this year comes to a close, I keep thinking about how much has been carried. Some of it visible, some of it hidden. There were moments of joy we wish we could freeze, and moments of loss we would rather forget, yet somehow both shaped us. We entered this year with expectations, and we are leaving it with stories. Some chapters make sense. Others just don’t.

If this year held grief, disappointment, exhaustion, or unanswered prayers, I want you to know something clearly, you did not miss God, and He was not far off. He was present the whole time. Not waiting for you on the other side of healing or progress, but near in the thick of it. In the long nights. In the quiet mornings. In the prayers that felt weak or unfinished.

“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” -Corrie Ten Boom

That truth has carried generations of believers, and it carries us now. Whatever this year uncovered, whatever it stripped away or exposed, God’s love has been underneath it all, steady and unmovable.

As we look toward a new year, there is often pressure to manufacture change, to overhaul ourselves by sole determination, to promise growth we might not be able to sustain. But Scripture offers a different picture of becoming new. Christ does not ask us to reinvent ourselves. He asks us to put off the old and put on the new. Not by striving harder, but by surrendering more fully to Him. Transformation in Christ is not cosmetic or forced. It is formed through surrender, repentance, and daily dependence. The invitation of a new year is not self improvement, but Spirit led renewal.

“With Jesus, even in our darkest moments, the best remains, and the very best is yet to be.” -Corrie Ten Boom

Not because life will suddenly be easy, but because Christ goes with us into what comes next. Because grace keeps meeting us. Because redemption is still at work.

If you are stepping into the new year hopeful, may that hope be rooted in Him. If you are stepping into it tired, you are not alone. God is not asking you to arrive strong. He is inviting you to arrive surrendered.

Here is my prayer for you as one year ends and another begins.

Lord, thank You for carrying us through another year. Thank You for the moments we can name with gratitude, and even for the ones we still do not understand. You see the full story when we can only see a few pages at a time. As we release this year into Your hands, help us to let go of what was never ours to carry. Heal what is still tender. Restore what feels thin or worn down. Teach us how to step into the coming days with trust instead of fear, and dependence instead of striving. May we enter this new year anchored in truth, covered by grace, and confident that nothing ahead of us is deeper than Your love. We place our lives, our families, our hopes, and our unknowns in You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Best is Yet to Come,

Jessica Lee