2020 has not been a disgraceful year, nor the pandemic year, but the year of our Lord who rules over disgrace and pandemics. Jesus rules over viruses, vultures, and vegetarians. Our attempts to frustrate 2020 from the goodness of God is like Job silently receiving 84 direct questions from the Creator and in the end, relinquishing his supposed authority to define reality using God’s terms.
This was the year to speak prophetically about a lot of things. Some of us dared early on to state some things that were quite obvious but neglected and rejected by many. I stand by all of it with even greater enthusiasm today than in early March. In my estimation, my assertions all came true, and the faithful will still reap the fruits of persistence and determination in 2021.
For many of us, the responsibilities increased a hundred-fold, and we felt the weight of it like glory pressing and molding us. We walked by faith through all these months trusting God to take whatever was happening and make something beautiful out of it. And that he did!
I often say that when things don’t make sense to us, it’s a sign that behind the mysterious veil of heaven is a Mastermind bringing to pass his purposes flawlessly and timely. And that last point is worth considering. God’s timing carries with it the accuracy of a thousand arrows. This came to me this morning shooting with my boys and realizing that my lack of precision is a sure sign that God’s arrows never miss…not even once. Whatever comes to pass comes to pass and that too comes to pass without the slightest deviation to the left or the right. No matter how windy it is, God does not need a scope. He is eternally precise.
In a couple of hours, I will be officiating another wedding. Prior to that, we had several joyful Advent and Christmas parties–the kind that leaves you speechless for lack of superlatives. I am always struck by how people can ask “how did last night’s event go” while expecting someone like me to simply say, “It went fine!” But how can human beings carry their lives so flippantly? If these humans beings, as C.S. Lewis so aptly states, shall one day “be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship,” how can we be so cavalier about being in the presence of such people? No. “It’s fine” is not enough for me. Officiating and witnessing a wedding between a godly man and a godly woman is not just a “fine event,” it’s the superlative of superlatives. We should struggle to explain what happened because it’s something more glorious than we can ever fathom. Perhaps that’s the reason people can only say, “fine”– they simply lack the vocabulary.
I am praying 2021 is the year of superlatives; a year where human beings, especially the new human race made in the Second Adam, have to fumble their way through describing their blessings; a year where we all learn to look at the world around us with the awe it deserves and to see life with the hopefulness it offers.
To be really honest: I will miss 2020! I will miss its repertoire of opportunities to serve and laugh while the world went insane. I know there were swords and famines and death and demons all around these last 365 days, but what I also know for certain is that it was the year of our Lord twenty-twenty and the cumulative glory of it will live on in the next 365 days. Farewell, blessed year!
