Christmas 2020

Honestly... I am not even sure where to start this year. It's Christmas, and with more Oxford commas than you would probably prefer, I will circle back to the day at hand.

2020 seemed off to a promising start with so many things leaning toward the positive. Sure, there was this thing occurring on the other side of the world, and we knew it would come, but we had absolutely no idea how much it would change our lives as a planet of humanity. Events that we thought were significant in scope and impact a decade ago now pale in comparison.

It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold:

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to all,

From heav'n's all-gracious king."

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

In the latter part of the second month of 2020, as reports were breaking that the virus had entered our country, I had issues of my own. A major water main broke where the driveway to our home meets the street. The torrent of water went up in the air in an arc, peaking somewhere between 80 and 100 feet and then landed on vehicles in the drive way and began flooding two levels of our home. In the words of the first Water Department worker to arrive on the scene, "I have never seen anything like this." At first, all they could do was watch in amazement as the water shot into the air, hit the ground hard enough to knock you off your feet at the point of impact, flooded the house and washed away all traces of the landscaping. That story is still ongoing as the responsibility of the damage falls to the Water Department and it is at the point where it is a claim and still not handled.

That same day, I said goodbye to an old friend, a Viet Nam veteran and a fellow paramedic. We had last seen each other at church months before. A few days later, a beloved nurse passed away who had been a friend to all and the very face of a hospital system to all in local EMS. Too many, too soon. 

Still through the cloven skies they come

With peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heav'nly music floats

O'er all the weary world.

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hov'ring wing,

And ever o'er its babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

Then within a short period of time we were on lockdown. Businesses closed, economy tanking, conflicting rumors of what was going on in hospitals and in various areas. Even 911 was deathly quite. Ambulances that traversed our community daily sat idle. One thing was up... cardiac arrests. The number of out-of-hospital arrests in our community tripled. Nothing like I had ever seen. In other areas of the country, where the virus has struck hard, 911 systems were overwhelmed, and folks from our workplace went to help.

Sports were cancelled. Hopes were dashed. Many small businesses closed. And people got sick and... people died.

The year got slightly better in late spring and early summer. We adapted to new rules of people distancing (I know, but that is what I would prefer to call it). A slight chance at all being well by July, but the evidence was already showing that would not be the case. But still, summer was a bit of a reprieve, somewhat dotted by the political yammer of an upcoming presidential election, clashing values and unrest in the streets of America. All that quietness of 911 earlier in the year , ended with a vengeance. It all came back and then some with rising acuity medical patients and violence-related trauma that I can only term as COVID collateral damage. 

Persons in all walks of life were stressed. Many hid it well. Others did not. There was a lot of self back patting in many arenas and the word hero was thrown around far too often for my tastes (I have never been one to acknowledge the TYFMS crowd... if you are really doing something worth recognizing the value is in the action itself and not in the reward). I'm one to carry my stressors close to the chest until I can put them to rest. My comeuppance came in a casual conversation with my youngest daughter. I was noting out loud one day that the friendly neighborhood black cat who stopped by daily had not been around. She stated, "Oh, Mercedes? He got sick and his owners had to put him down."

I wasn't ready for that one and the weeks and months of other garbage just seemed to download inside of about five seconds. So, that said... never want to do that again.

All you, beneath your heavy load,

By care and guilt bent low,

Who toil along a dreary way

With painful steps and slow:

Look up, for golden is the hour,

Come swiftly on the wing,

The Prince was born to bring you peace;

Of Him the angels sing.

So then, the plague is back on the upswing again. The politics fulminating into more and more conflict that did not end with an election. People are still getting sick. People are also dying of both COVID and all of the other things that kill us mortals. Even with the holidays, there is a gray over much of everything. There is the constant feeling of nothing being right and even when it does return to a "normal" things will still be off from what they were before.

We survived Thanksgiving (which is now blamed for the
current "up" in the never ending sea of ups and downs). And we arrive at Christmas. We arrive torn and broken in so many ways, which humanity should be used to as we are all flawed creatures. We weather storms in an almost narcissistic manner, all the time thinking that we can solve it all by our own actions and that things will be better tomorrow. many times they are not better and may not get better for awhile. It has not been all bad, the good parts of this year have, in many cases, been immediately overshadowed by the next dealt card of unanticipated hardship or unfavorable news. Sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes we are right. But the long term truth resides in truth itself.

This is not all that there is. 

Last night was Christmas Eve. The candlelight communion service. The sermon started by pointing out the overuse and diminishing of the meaning of the word "unprecedented" during this year. The Pastor was right. Very few things are truly unprecedented.

Even though many of us hear it over and over again, our flawed selves cannot seem to understand it. What happens here is far less important than what is to come. Our happiness is not guaranteed here, but in the future. What is guaranteed here (when we take time to realize the truth in it) is that we have Joy in what Christ came to do and succeeded in doing.

For lo, the days have come to pass

By prophets seen of old,

When down into the circling years

Came Christ as was foretold.

His word of peace shall to the earth

God's ancient promise bring,

And all who take this gift will hear

The song the angels sing.

So as I stood in the line I could feel my subtle anger at the state of the world around me. My discontent with things undone and watching the disappointment of others in the state of worldly event. But every step closer to the altar and the promise of the words being anticipated, brings relief... "Take eat. Take drink."

It is all good. It is all good because God is good. He has
already taken care of every real need. We just tend to concentrate on the distractions as is our nature. We all currently look toward 2021 as if changing the year will signal the end of woes. That will not be the case. There will just be new ones. And after that more. 2020 will be remembered, but it has not been the first unfondly remembered year and it will not be the last.

But the promise will not change. Our triune God still holds the throne. He always has and always will. And we share that same security.

Our earthly minds simply forget that daily. Take the time this Christmas to remember that He is the one truly in control. His gift is the only reward we truly need.

In that there is joy and a Merry Christmas.

1am CST - Christmas Morning 2020