Hosanna, I see so much evidence of grace in your life. You are truly growing up. I have witnessed these wonderful things throughout the past year of your life:

• a growing tenderness towards your little sister
• growth in your knowledge and understanding of God (which is evidenced by the way you pray)
• exuberant and contagious spurts of joy and laughter
• increased sincerity in your apologies when you fail
• more courage and vehemence in your battle against sin
• more zealous to share your possessions with others
• more boldness to try new things and take risks (you started Kindergarten, sailing into it with great excitement)
• less bashfulness with adults (you are not too intimidated by adults to say thank you and hello, even to strangers)
• quicker response to discipline
• …and there is more, to be certain—but these are the evidences of grace that immediately come to mind.

I am so proud of you. You are headed in the right direction… but that is not why I love you. I would love you just the same if there were not these sweet evidences of grace, and even if the pattern of your life were going in the wrong direction. I love you because God gave you to us, as a gift, and my affections sing for joy over you. Nonetheless, I rejoice and am overjoyed that you are doing so well and show these evidences of God’s work in your life.

You are a gift to this family, and I thank God for you constantly. May you be blessed of our great and awesome God in this next year. May you continue to discover the wonders of His love, seen by the life He has given you in this beautiful, perplexing and sometimes terrifying world. But most of all, may you grow in your discovery of the miracle of the Father’s grace toward you, in Jesus. May you see that though your sin is more horrible than you could ever dare to think, His love for you is beyond finding out in Christ, who took the full weight of Father’s wrath for all His children. May the truth of this love be your growing delight, into eternity! May it be the foundation of all that you do, think and feel!