Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of 2006! But since it is, I thought I would wish all of you in Blogland a Happy New Year! I don't make resolutions because I never kept them anyway, but I do want to continue a process that started in my life this fall. Heather challenged me to simplify my life and my home, get rid of the clutter, those things that not only aren't necessary but you have to wonder why they were ever kept.

Like this bird's nest(I know you were wondering how I was going to tie these pictures in with New Year's wishes...) It was in a pile of other special things on top of our Filing Cabinet that Heather and I found while beginning the journey of getting rid of 'special things'....those things that I had kept and really didn't need. I had found this nest on our deck years' ago, and it was such an amazing engineering feat I had to keep it. Somehow the bird had made the nest using the usual twigs and the unusual, red yarn of some sort. But really, why did I still have it?


Here is the view from the top....it still had pieces of egg shell in it when I found it, and had obviously been home to a bird family.



I took these pictures to remember it by, and then threw it out....but it has become symbolic in my life in a way. I am getting rid of old things and in some case, making room for the new things that long ago replaced them(or the new things I would like to still get some day). In the same way, God wants us to let go of the 'old things' so that He can do 'new things' in our lives.

So often we want to hang onto the old things, even when they are painful, or just part of a different season of our lives. But God has a better plan for us and wants to work in our lives in new amazing ways. So join me in letting go of the old things, and embracing the new.....and may we all be amazed by God in 2007!