See, I am Doing a New Thing || December 2020

Last night, Beau and I put the kids to bed, mixed a couple of old fashioneds, and fashioned our ipad up on a board game so it was tall enough to get a good angle of our face and not positioned to look up our nostrils.  2020 has thrown a lot of curveballs, but learning how to perfect the right angles for a Zoom call is a skill we can say we've mastered because of it.  We went back to a virtual meeting format for our small group now that we're close to Christmas and everyone is hoping to stay healthy and safe.  We talked about end-of-the-year plans - which families are getting together for Christmas, how everyone felt about online Christmas Eve church, who would get the vaccine right away, and what our schools might look like when everyone returns in January.  It's been a year unlike any in our lifetime and just quietly taking in the many questions and conversations we've explored together this year reminds me all that we've been through and all that we've conquered.  

Without a doubt, this year will be remembered for a lot of negative.  A global pandemic that took many lives, closed schools, cost businesses billions of dollars, and led to many changes that altered everyday life as we knew it.  An election year full of tension, division, and turmoil.  Racial persecution and distrust in people positioned to keep our country safe.  Long-term care residents and the elderly left isolated and unable to see or hug loved ones.  Pretty much every public event cancelled.  Health-care workers exhausted and hospitals at capacity, parents still working while teaching kids at home, churches closed for months, and toilet paper obsolete.  We wore masks everywhere and forgot how to smile at people in the grocery store.  For much of 2020, our world felt scary, overwhelming and discouraging.

This year has also brought personal hardship for a lot of people I love.  Friends have grieved babies, lost jobs, bravely battled cancer, buried parents, and received phone calls that turned lives and futures upside down in a matter of a minute.  But I look at these people I love and stand in awe at one thing they have common - their worldview is so much bigger than the worldview that seems to take center stage these days.  They have bravely put one foot in front of the other because their eyes are fixed on the only thing worth fixating on.  And for me, that's the lesson I sure hope to take away from this 2020 year.  

We've been reading through some of the greatest Bible stories this month as we lead up to Christmas and I'm reminded at how big our God is.  Through the stories of the underdogs like Joseph and David, I'm reminded that God doesn't leave anyone out of his story and often equips the seemingly least capable to carry out his biggest tasks.  And while the big stories told time and time again read like an epic tale of rescue, the detail girl in me marvels more at the small bits you only notice when you take time to really sit in God's word - baby Moses' sister in the brush watching Pharaoh's daughter rescue that woven basket from shore, or the Hebrew midwives who kept delivering those little babies even though they were told not to.  God not only exists in the details but weaves them together in ways that plant our lives with purpose even when we don't know it. This giant of a year pales in comparison to the incredible redemptive story He wrote since he breathed life into this earth.  And he's still writing it - a story of redemption through his people.  Us. 

God never asks us to minimize the hard, the hurt, the broken parts of our world.  In fact, he loved us enough to become flesh to experience it all with us.  But he gave us Jesus because he wanted us to look past this world and adopt a far greater world-view.  And when we can do that, he lifts our burdens and creates space for great joy. 

"See I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:19)

Great joy this December...

Our kids wear Christmas socks all year, so I make sure to find a few new pairs to surprise them with in December.

Christmas cards ordered and mailed out early this year.

Boone has been going all out this December.  He even got caught in a shrinking machine and turned into tiny Boone for a few days.  The kids had to complete some challenges in hopes he would turn big again and the next morning there he was back to his old self eating a stack of pancakes!

A few acts of kindness, including a holly jolly postman package because those delivery drivers are working extra hard this year.

Simple December traditions that bring the kids a whole lot of joy.  And perhaps even more special this year.  Home has definitely been our favorite place to be.