To say life has been full would be an understatement. To say our family has expanded would be the honest truth. To say we have experienced much joy is a beautiful reality. To say we are navigating through deep loss is the unvarnished truth. To say my God is faithful through every expected and unexpected, beautiful and crushing, life enhancing and life altering moment cannot even begin to fully and wholly encompass God’s faithfulness.
He is faithful.
To get the ball rolling on our full year, my youngest sister and her fiance were married on March 6. Amariah and McGwire were the third of the five of us Bauer kids to get hitched.
God is faithful.
Not one to be left behind, Jeremiah proposed to and married his girlfriend in three weeks time. Jeremiah and Anna were wed on April 3. Yep, you read that right, just one month after our sister. A mere six hours later, the whole clan was in the waiting room eagerly anticipating the birth of our first niece, Annabelle.
Little Miss entered the world in the last minutes of April 3 to share her parent’s wedding day. Wild and beautiful.
Jehovah Jireh is faithful.
On our way to Princeton on April 22 to pick up my Chicagoan sister and hoping to swing by the newly weds’, Amariah and McGwire, home to check out their newly painted bedrooms, I stood speechless at the crest of a bluff with the faintest of breezes and the warmth of a spring sun setting to the west as my love asked me to be his bride.
El Shaddai is faithful.
The morning of June 1 my grandfather passed away in his home of almost 40 years in the arms of his wife of 59 years and in the presence of his youngest daughter. To kneel with my family and pray a prayer honoring our Saviour in the midst of grief and the deepest heartsick pain will forever be seared into my memory.
Jeovah Rapha is faithful.
Ten weeks following our engagement, in the company of family and friends, my father and mother prayed a prayer of blessing and protection over Brandon and I as we made a covenant to each other and to God. Together we covenanted to keep God at the center of our marriage.
Jehovah Nissi is faithful.
Photo Credit: Amelia Zobrist Photography
In the first two months of our marriage, The Mister and I have shared in the joys of cousins’ marriages, traveled to the East Coast, ventured to the West Cost, welcomed home my youngest brother and his new family, celebrated countless birthdays, and partook in a loving and honoring memorial service for my Grandpa.
God is faithful. Always faithful.
Faithful does not accurately describe God’s commitment to my family. Through every life event of 2016 God’s presence has been felt. He is the calm in the face of the unknown. He is the provider of the peace that surpasses all understanding. He is the joy found in the marriages of three siblings. He is the giver of life in the welcoming of a new babe into the Bauer fold. He is the stronghold in the bellows of an unknown future. He is.
He is. God IS. As a mere sinful mortal I cannot explain all that God ‘is’. However, God is able to fully explain His person. In Exodus 3: 14-15 Moses asks God to tell him who He is so that he may share with the wandering Israelites, He replies:
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”
I proclaim as Peter proclaimed in Mark 8:27-29:
“Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
When sharing the wild, extravagant life events of the year 2016 it is not uncommon for a string of questions to be asked, “How are you parents? How is your mom? How are you adjusting? How’s married life? Are you settling in?”. The list of questions could go on for a few more lines. But my answer is the same, Life is Good.
I am able to respond with Life is Good because God is Good. God is faithful. He IS. And because He is, I am able to say Life is Good.
Life is ever changing but God is good and He is faithful.
Musings of a Tethered Soul 
Girl!!! I’d not seen this til just now. Well said. Even better, well lived!