Twelve Months Ago This Week

You are amazing! Have I told you all that lately? Truly, you are incredible. Think of what you have been through these last twelve months. It was a year ago this week that COVID rocked our neck of the world and radically changed our culture. In that time you have endured shutdowns, closed churches, schools and businesses, financial insecurity, isolation, fear, loneliness and masks. You’ve faced division, the scarcity of goods, the wait for vaccines, illness, and, most poignantly, the death of loved ones. You have suffered all of these things and we are still here. We may be battered by the whole experience but, by your resilience, you made it through all of this. By your faith in Jesus Christ and goodness of heart, by your holding onto hope, you have sacrificed so much in love. There has been much lost this last year yet you are a hardy, strong, and durable people.

I look back and am profoundly humbled by your creative measures to foster connection, to reach out to seniors and the vulnerable, to intercede prayerfully for neighbor, to support and encourage healthcare workers and those keeping society going, to work from home and school children in those same homes. I behold the myriad ways God has moved through you all, uniquely and powerfully.

While vaccinations are increasing, the weather is improving, and spirits are rising, while we all want to move past this past year, I think it is essential to confront and commemorate and mourn the losses and, simultaneously, to celebrate the victories, the fortitude of the human will, and the empathy that made us all one. These past twelve months have been hard, pure and simple, and the mark they will leave is a real one. I encourage you, in this week and in the weeks to come, tell Jesus about the sorrows, memories, and challenges you encountered and still experience. Cry with Him; let Him hug you. Tell Him in prayer about your hopes, ask for healing, and seek the restoration of trust. Invite your family and friends in a thoughtful way to share the tears, triumphs, surprises, innovations, lessons, and even laughs from this last year.

Without any overemphasis, we need to process what has happened these past twelve months and to be gentle with ourselves and with each other. You have done something remarkable. You endured.