Calendar Girl

Calendar Girl

I’ve tried going paperless. I have. I have all sorts of convenient tools and apps that stand ready to keep me on track, on time, and on task. But I love my plain, banded folio and its simple, worn pages. Scratched notes fill the columns of each week, reminding me where I’ve been and where I need to go. Scribbled names record who I’ve spoken with and perhaps what we’ve talked about.

Great and small blocks of time attest to what sort of work I’ve done and what is yet to do. Stray words and phrases are buried throughout the whole stew that might someday bubble into something more substantial . . . or not. My own handwriting on my planner’s not-virtual pages grounds me in a way that ether notes cannot. I am, unapologetically, a calendar girl.

Each January I procure a new planner with crisp, white, empty pages. I have no idea what assignments or stories it will catalog. I hope, of course, that its pages will record good work, thoughtfully done. Old friendships maintained. New ones serendipitously explored. Heart-hammering trials endured. Good books read and pondered. Inviting creative challenges met. I cannot possibly predict what will appear on any one page, but I can attest with certainty who will be present behind, before, and on every page: my heavenly Father.

How do I know? Because he was there in the pages of last year’s calendar . . . and in all the ones that came before it. He was there when the pages bore notes like “fire” and “move” and “myeloma” and “Memphis.” He was there on a beachside balcony in Orlando and in Marcy’s guest room in May. He was there in my mother’s hospice room and beside me on a bluff high above the Frio River. He will be for me what he has always been: present and the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The pages may be new. The year may be different. But there is no reason to fear the coming contents of this empty planner. The unseen Author of every line is unchanging, good, and true. He is faithful. He can be nothing less. I am a calendar girl, and he is the God of the ages.

God’s way is perfect. All the LORD’s promises prove true.

2 Samuel 22:31