Some habits keep us in step with the one who steps before us.

I have a few.

Opening God's word as I wake is one.

Bushwalking is another.

The bush takes me to a place where I can sense God's love, where His voice becomes a little clearer, and the everyday submits to the eternal.

On Boxing Day I slipped out into the bush, walking and pondering the year that was and the year that lay ahead.

Some areas of my life felt like an open vista, and some felt like a roadblock, a brick wall that I could not seem my way through.

The bush has a way of speaking. Somehow God's voice is in the trees, and the rocks and the dirt and the animal life. It is not uncommon for me to enter the bush perplexed and exit with answers whispering through the wind and the wilderness.

On Boxing Day as I walked, I looked down, and I saw a stepping-stone.
Not a regular stepping-stone, but a heart-shaped stepping-stone, leading up the next step on my walk.

The spotlight of heaven was on this stepping-stone.

What if love is our next step? What if a deeper understanding of the love of God opens up the path for us? What if a more profound commitment to living out God's love takes us to the next step on our journey?

I understood that some of my roadblocks are caused by a limited understanding of God's love for me.

A failure to understand that nothing can separate me from the love of God.

And perhaps an underestimation of the mighty power of trusting in God's love.

God's love makes a way, believing in God's love makes away, taking tender but sure steps based on God's unconditional love take us to the next level.

Before God is a judge, a ruler, a leader, a giver or a rewarder, He is a lover. Being found in His love will always move us forward, always take us closer to our destination, and always make us more like Christ.

Perhaps a deeper understanding of God's love is your stepping-stone into the next chapter of your life?

With love on the journey,

Kirrily xx