Tia Joy Kim

2017 was a transitional year for us. We moved almost 400 miles, I decided to close my calligraphy business and embrace this busy beautiful season of motherhood with arms wide open, and chose to invest more in person rather than digitally. 💛 And as I felt more healthy emotionally and spiritually, I sought calligraphy less and read and wrote and spent more time face to face with people. No Instagram images or posts to show for them but a rich Rolodex in my heart. 😉 . 2017 was a hard year (is any year not hard in this fallen world?) but it was a year of God's unrelenting kindness. Whatever I thought I lost and left behind in our move, God really multiplied back to us (I'm especially looking at you, @bbcbellflower church fam 💕) . A loved one recently asked me why the Christian life often looks so dreary and sin-focused. Like a constant refrain of "I'm such a sinner, God give mercy!" And I wondered if I portray too much of the struggle with sin rather than the surpassing value of Christ. But it's a real tension in the believer's life. I'm constantly exposed to the darkness of sin in my life and others' -- and I don't think this is any unique experience. Don't we all? How can you escape death and illness and spiritual poverty? It's right in our families, in our own hearts, everywhere we turn. All the paid vacations away couldn't expunge the seeping, present darkness. But because Christ is with me, in a real way, I can call the darkness what it is and face these demons with hope. We all can. . I pray 2018 is more of unearthing the glories and riches and beauty of Jesus Christ my Lord, whether I'm cleaning after the kids or walking through a loved one's darkness or painting. That whether I live or die, every last drop wrung out of this small life would attest to His worth. Because He is worth everything -- and even beyond that. . #bestnine2017, calligraphed words written in both anguish and joy. The background, bleak. But I pray, the foreground and focus, bright. Because such is our Hope and Joy. 💛✨

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