by Jen Balkey
2020 has seemed like a cosmic joke to many. It is a year many are hoping is a phase that we will get through and not have to repeat again. We have become quick to blame hardships, setbacks, and/or disappointment on 2020. While we do this, we are quietly and sadly forgetting that God is always in control. He is completely sovereign over all that has happened, is happening, and will happen. If we choose to give the power of our world and lives to a year on the calendar, where does that leave God?
While this Thanksgiving will look very different from that which many of us hoped or desired, I pray that you are able to reflect and praise God in spite of all that 2020 has held. Besides, there is hardly any way that everything that has happened in 2020 has been bad… right? Are you seeing a silver lining anywhere yet? Whether in your own life or in someone else’s, have you been able to see God’s grace, mercy, and miracles? Many babies have been born or conceived, and many marriages have happened even if they had to look differently from what the bride and groom hoped. God’s creation and marital vows are two beautiful ways to see God working. Even so, I do not want us to minimize the pain, sickness, and death that has occurred as well. We must wrestle with these two extremes and come to experience God’s provision, power, and presence in all of it.
As we move into the Advent season and look forward to celebrating Christmas, inevitably there will again be setbacks that we can choose to focus on. But we will once again have the choice to orient our gaze toward Him. What will you choose? The end of 2020 brings with it the celebration once again of the birth of Christ!
This year, that celebration will undoubtedly be different… but you can choose what you are focusing on. Our focus will frame the experience. Think for a moment of a beautiful photograph. I’m thinking of one with some of those fancy photography features where the subject is focused and the background is blurry. Christ is highlighted - completely in focus. All of the Christmas décor is there too, but in the background. Beautiful for what it is, but in its rightful place - the background.
2020 is not over yet. (No sighs or eye rolls.) It’s not too late to reframe your picture of 2020. This has not just been months upon months of some joke being played on us. Give God the glory due Him. You don’t have to try and delete the background of all that has happened in 2020, and pretend to see only Jesus and none of the difficulties. Rather, let the hardships and interruptions fade into the background, knowing each day of this odd year was still a part of God’s plan. See the beauty of the Christmas season with the twinkling lights, adorned trees, and boxes with their perfect (or imperfect) wrappings as reminders of Who and what we are celebrating.
How will you aim your camera? What mental picture is going to be displayed in the scrapbook of your mind as we end this 2020 calendar year? Can you and will you choose Him? Christ - our Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Light of the World, Emmanuel - God with us!! Joy and Peace to you and yours!
Love, Jen
