I confess I’m afraid to wish everyone a happy new year. Considering how 2020 unfolded, I’m wondering what 2021 will bring.
Despite all the ups and downs of 2020, though, we made it. My family has so far bypassed Covid19. The election, and all the drama, phone calls, and mountains of mail, has passed, even though the results are still in limbo. Church is back. Life seems ready to move forward. If I were to poll the birds outside my kitchen window. battling each other for places at the suet feeder, nothing has changed.
What will 2021 bring? A vaccine for covid-19 is now available. It shows promise. Can we stop living in fear of every sneeze, cough, and headache? That would be a welcomed change.
No bi-year elections this year. Perhaps my phone will stop ringing with pleas for money. My mailbox can return to its regular size and not bulge with letters from candidates all over the United States promising to be the one who will turn the tide of upheaval. Who can we believe?
The one constant in all of this bedlam has been my belief in a higher power. God the creator has always remained steadfast throughout the trials and tribulations of a tumultuous year. He has kept my family safe. He’s not let us want. We didn’t even run out of toilet paper!
When darkness and impending doom, the voices of the commentators, and the thrust of the governor’s orders, seemed to fill every nook and cranny of the news, God continued to reign. His Word kept me calm. My prayers met His ears. He sustained me when all I wanted to do was curl up in a corner somewhere and cry.
Psalm 46:1-3 reminds us: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
So bring on 2021. Let the year teach us what it may. New trials, new changes, new lessons to learn will not shatter our faith in an all-knowing everywhere-present God of the universe. In His word, we trust. In His protection, we rest.
Happy New Year.