This is my last blog in the horrendous episode of history that was 2020. I think we should declare this upcoming January 1^st “National Hindsight Day.” Most of us want this year in our rearview mirrors. I should allow for the fact that for some of you, happy occasions did indeed happen: births, weddings, graduations, milestone anniversaries, travel experiences untainted by threat of the virus. The rest of us? We thank God just for surviving. We all saw or at least heard about more than enough sorrow and pain. We could have given up, but we at least gave it the old college try. Learning how to Skype, Facetime and Zoom. Watching church from the safety of our own living rooms. We may have felt helpless, but our reservoirs of Holy Spirit strength pulled us out of the muck. We found moments of peace, even if it meant a new way of experiencing it.

In this week of retrospectives, we still have a season of Christmas, brief though it may be. Epiphany in one week, the last vestige of holiday celebration. The new and radiant Light has come once again into our bleak world. Kids will be back to this weird new experience of school. Work computers will awake from hibernation. W-2’s will start to trickle into mailboxes or on computers. More births, more deaths, more circled dates on the calendar that we hang on to. Some will be able to roll up their sleeves to receive an injection of hope and promise. I pray that more will return, and new believers will turn, to the Light that shines even when giving up might look more attractive. If you give in to anything, give in to the grace, mercy and peace that come from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the blessed, Holy Trinity we find unconditional love, given not just for us to hang on and survive, but to thrive.

Pastor Art