Have you looked for the silver lining this year? I have seen things going around saying “I’m not setting my clock back. We don’t need an extra hour of 2020!” That’s slightly funny, but at the same time not. The year 2020 has held some major hurts, disappointments, sorrows, and even griefs for many of us.
~ Job loss
~Fear
~Illness
~Working from home
~Schooling from home
~Quarantined
~Masks
~Food and paper good shortages
~Friends and Family divided on so many topics, especially with it being an election year.
This year has held so much unusual tension in addition to the stressors we have walked through.
• Terminal Illness
• Burying a Child
• Job loss (son)
• Medical Bills
I saw a sweet friend of mine posting today about the sorrow their family has walked through in the last year. Their daughter is in treatment for Leukemia. The fear, the pain, the tension, the bills, and every emotion you can imagine all hit hard as they think back over the last year. The praises are that she is a survivor of the first year. The prayer is that she continues to thrive and heal from the wretched disease of cancer!
As bad as all of the things 2020 has thrown at us is, there is still a silver lining. As big of a beating as our family has taken, there is still good. As much as we feel battered, there is still victory. God is still good, he is still on his throne, this did not surprise him, and he still has us in the palm of his hand.
Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For our family, we can look back at 2020 and be grateful. We can see quarantine and working from home allowed Daddy to be with Millie during the final months of her life. We can see living on a farm allowed us to enjoy life with bonfires, hayrides, tractor riding, animals, and farm work that gave us time together. We can see our son using his time off to pursue real estate school, to apprentice for a bit with an accountant, and to spend each free day with Millie.
Through illness, we can be reminded to take each thought captive. We cannot live in fear of the future. We must live for today, for who is promised tomorrow?
James 4:14-15
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Even in death, we can find things to be grateful for. Our sweet precious Millie will never hurt again. She will never be scared or anxious. She is in the presence of our everlasting God. She only knows joy, no sorrow. While each of these things we still endure here on earth while we wait for heaven, it gives us hope and a purpose to continue. It helps up stay our minds on finishing well. Completing the race set before us, just as she completed her race.
Just as a huge ship is moved by a tiny rudder, gratitude is the rudder that turns our lives. Gently, ever so slightly, but it steers us in a positive direction. The movements are not big, but the captain trusts that if he moves the wheel above, the rudder too will move and send the ship on its course. What about 2020 are you grateful for?
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