Peppermint Tea in a Brown Teapot

Technically this tea was consumed yesterday evening, but it was really lovely so I wanted it to be a title. A few days ago Dorothy, Dehlia, and I went out for one errand and ended up spending most of the daylight hours galavanting about Cambridge. We made it to Primark... the most delightful and cheap cute clothes shop I've ever seen... so potentially dangerous for the wallet. We walked arm in arm down a cobblestone street or two, strolled down Jesus Lane (Wouldn't it be cool if He returned down that street? Haha.), and touched a church that was has stood the test of time. The Round Church (It's really round... who would have thought!?) was built in the year A.D. 1130... so basically this one church is over 600 years older than my native country. This really has me thinking about the concept of time, and how Scripture speaks to how a thousand years to us are as a day to God. What a thought! Here I am in the midst of this town littered with buildings that have witnessed so much change, so much history, and little ol' me gets to pass them on my way to the store or class. Time is an intriguing entity. Is it a thing? A state of being? Perhaps an attitude? Wrapping my mind around the idea of time is difficult enough, but imagine creating the idea of time! Our God did that... yeah... He's pretty awesome like that.
I have spent far too many minutes of my 21 years and some odd months wishing time would go faster... wishing for something different... hoping for what's to come, and sometimes worrying about it. The following I can't take credit for; it is wonderful and was in the front cover of the bulletin at my home church on New Year's Eve. It reads:

"An anxious patient, lying on her sickbed asked her doctor, “How long will I have to lie here and suffer?”  “Just a day at a time,” replied the physician.  Just a day at a time!  What a wonderful philosophy of life – especially as we turn the pages of our crisp new calendars and scan the 365 empty boxes into each of which, God willing, we will pour 24 hours of living.  Just a day at a time the new year will come to us with its new challenges, its new tasks, its new hopes, and its new fears.  Thank God that we do not have to live the entire new year at once!  It comes only a day at a time.  Even tomorrow is never ours until it becomes today.  It is a blessed secret to be able to live just a day at a time.  Those who have seen the crushing burden of sin lifted by Calvary’s cross can carry their little burdens, however heavy, until nightfall.  Those who know that their Savior has completed the tremendous work of redemption can perform their own tasks, however hard, just for a day.  Those who have seen the patience of their Lord and Savior can live patiently, lovingly, helpfully, until the sun goes down.  God gives us night to shut down the curtain of darkness on our little days.

We cannot see beyond, nor do we need to.  Tomorrow is in God’s hands – He is asking us only to live today.  So we stand on the threshold of a brand-new year – a year that will record great changes in the history of our world, in the history of our families, and in our personal history.  But we don’t need to be frightened by the overwhelming possibilities.  Instead, we can find comfort and strength in the fact that God has cut the coming year into smaller pieces, and we will live it just a day at a time.  God has promised us that our strength will equal our days (Deuteronomy 33:25).  We have God’s assurance that each day throughout all the coming years, will find us equipped with the strength necessary to meet the challenges and more than overcome them.  We don’t need to live February in January.  We don’t need to live tomorrow today.  Above all, we don’t need to fear the prospect of an unknown future.  Our all-wise, almighty, eternal God – in Whom there are no yesterdays and no tomorrows – has gone ahead.  When we reach our own tomorrow, we will find Him there."

My prayer for us all is that we would be given the peace and strength that only our Precious Lord can give, and that we would cling to Him always, trusting that the Author of time has our times in His strong hands. He is outside of time, the great Alpha and Omega, and is already in our future. What can there possibly be left about which to worry? Pip pip and cheerio to you. :)