Is Our Vision 2020

 

While it hardly seems possible that another year is in the rearview mirror, it is indeed past. 

I'm sure that this past year held many victories as well as many challenges. If your life is anything like mine, it can seem like you're on an intense roller coaster ride. Which, by the way, I usually am a fan. Cedar Point back in Sandusky Ohio is one of my favorite places. But as life goes, we would prefer that it be less like a roller coaster and more like the paddle boat ride where we can enjoy the cruise while staying far away from the plastic actors on the shore making scary animal sounds or shooting fake guns and arrows. With a roller coaster ride sort of life, we might feel like we didn't even sign up for the trip but we're on it anyway. 

I think back to March and the COVID-19 shutdowns, the move to virtual church, the closing of businesses and the back and forth about whether schools will be open or not or go hybrid. I look back to May and the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and the social justice protests, the political unrest of a presidential election year, and the daily infection and death toll numbers of the novel Coronavirus and the continued separation from our friends and families. 

This past year was 20/20. No, not that 20/20. The year 2020! I know it's not quite the same as physical vision, but the number of the year gives us an excellent opportunity to take our own “spiritual eye exam. How's your vision? Many of us would love to be able to answer that question with a response like, “my vision is 20/20”. And while many of us would like to answer that way, we may need glasses or contacts to get us to that point. 

Ephesians 1:8 says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what the hope of His calling is, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

 There is a song we often hear with the title “Open the Eyes of My Heart.” This song builds on the idea from Ephesians that God wants us to see with the eyes of faith! The eyes of faith go far beyond where our physical or sensory eyes will take us.

 Though 2020 the year isn’t exactly the IDEAL as it is when it comes to eye exams, the question is, can we come to appreciate all the things that God blessed us with in the midst of the less than 20/20 of 2020?

 My hope is that in 2021, whatever bumpy or smooth ride you find yourself on, you will notice that you are sitting next to a God that rides it out with you and is there in the ups and the downs. Our hope as Christians is in Christ in each new day and each new year; Christ who serves as the lens through which we look to the now and to the future. 

Peace and blessings, 

Pastor MP

Photo by Blake Barlow on Unsplash