Goodness! I can hardly believe that 2017 is over and we have entered into the new year! It almost seems surreal, doesn't it? I don't know... Maybe it is just me, but it seems like as we enter into each new year that passes, something stirs inside of us, and I can't quite place it. Perhaps it is just anticipation for the coming year, the milestones that will be reached, the resolutions and goals. Or maybe it's a stirring for something else. Something higher. Something that our finite minds can't quite comprehend. Something that the Father is doing.

In the last year, I have watched the Father move in ways that I have never seen before. I have seen His blessing and mercy, His rescuing and mighty hand in my own life in only the last couple months. And we saw Him so very clearly in our biggest highlight of 2017; in Israel, watching the coming redemption unfold before our eyes and having our lives be radically impacted and changed. 

I believe that the stirring in our hearts is a yearning for the coming redemption. As each year passes, we move closer and closer to the time when our Messiah will return and rule and reign from Jerusalem, the Holy City. And with each passing year, our excitement and our anticipation grows, and even in the hearts of those who do not know the Father, something inside of them longs and yearns for something. 

That something is Redemption.

Geulah. 

A promise of hope.

And that is what we saw in Israel. During the Feast of Tabernacles, we watched thousands upon thousands of Jewish families flocking to Jerusalem, filling the narrow and slippery streets and lining the Western Wall, praying, yearning for redemption to come. And in those six weeks that we spent there, it was never more clear to me that the Father is moving in ways that we have never seen before. 

I cannot wait to see how our lives change in this next year. I don't have the slightest idea of what it will look like, but I know that whatever it is is going to be absolutely amazing.

On that note, here are some pictures highlighting our special moments in 2017! For the most part these should be in order of date, but some of them might be a little off from when I transferred them from my camera to the computer. Enjoy!