Presenting this year to God

My husband is a big picture person. He likes standing at the top and looking down. He prefers an overview to details. I am the opposite. I like details and have trouble seeing the big picture, so he often has to help me with the overview.

The new year begins with a big picture verse. It invites me to stand at the top, not that I might look down on anything or anyone, nor that I might see an overview, but to present myself to the Lord.

Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. (Exodus 34:2)

Christians often speak of “mountain top” experiences with God. He draws us closer to Himself in some way or does something that brings us to a deeper vision and relationship with Him. We appreciate these experiences, and like the saints of old, use them as markers in our spiritual lives.

However, this verse is about my side of this type of experience. Normally a “mountain top” high has nothing to do with what I do, but here God asks me to prepare myself. I am to be ready each morning to come and present myself to Him for a deep relationship experience. In other words, I’m to keep on doing what has been my practice for the past forty years.

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Lord, what will 2012 hold? I have no idea, yet by Your grace, I hope to begin it --- and each day of it --- by presenting myself to You. Then, no matter what happens, I am ready. You are with me in the high places as well as the low. So this bright morning, I present my life and yield the days to come into Your loving and capable hands.