This is our last newsletter of the year, and I’m thinking about the fact that I haven’t seen most of you since early March. We had no idea, back in early March, the COVID-19 pandemic would be so serious and would require us to be apart for so long. There are so many things we couldn’t have predicted, but here we are looking back at probably the strangest and most challenging year of our lives. As I’m writing this, the virus vaccine is beginning to be released, and we can look to the next year with hope that we might gain back some normalcy and be able to look back on this crazy year as something we made it through.
Even with hope on the horizon, we still have a way to go, and the news of the daily death count from the virus should give us all some grief and a sense of caution. Robert Frost said in one of his most famous poems he had “miles to go until I sleep.” We have some miles to go before we get to a place of rest. I know you’re discouraged; we all are. I know your heart longs for a normal Christmas. I long for the day we’re all back in our sanctuary without a worry. In the meantime, maybe words from Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh might be good news to all of us: “Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
And know at Christmas Christ wasn’t born into an easy or simple time. Yet, there in that place, Jesus came among us as a savior and as God with us. What we celebrate back then is true in this challenging time, too, and so may the light of Christ among us light our way in this dark time and into, hopefully, a better next year.
Grace & peace,
Jason Jones
