2020 The Year of Too Many…

It’s been eight centuries since any human looked up towards a sky etched in a hue of grey blackness and observed a distinctly bright star (in full array) with a smaller side companion as equally vibrant and visible.

Now eight hundred years later and it’s as if that celestial body was shooting flickers of light directly at me. Sort of eerie, as if it knew that I would be standing there agaze almost a millennium later. It’s as if it knew that in December 2020, there would be a need for a glimmer of hope in a dark time in our global history. It’s as if it knew that my gaping at that star would force me to look up. It’s as if it knew that my admiration of this heavenly body would compel me to hold my head up and become even more cognizant that there is still hope from above!

Yes, this luminous body, the Star of Bethlehem, was a stellar highlight in 2020. There were many other highlights in 2020, some not as inspirited as this. Unfortunately, too many other highlights were heart wrenching!

20/20, usually associated with vision but what did we really see? Too many upheavals, disturbances, unrests, turmoil, hatred, selfishness and sorrow. 2020 the year of too many…

too many lies

too many unanswered questions

too many schools closed

too many churches closed

too many frontline workers tirelessly working

too many people standing in food lines

too many politicians not doing their jobs

too many sicknesses

too many uncertainties

too many people losing their jobs

too many people can’t pay their rent or mortgage

Too many DEAD!

Yes 2020, will go down in history as the year of too many… just too many “too many’s…”

Too Many, “Too Many’s…”

For my family, 2020 came in rough. Chronic disease. Church closed. Jobs lost. Marriages broken. Hearts torn. Then on top that--Corona and everything changed. There was a new norm.

Immediately. One Day. Everything changed. One person at a time. One city at a time. One nation at a time. Too many lives forever changed! Too many lives forever lost. There were just too many “too many’s” in 2020.

We are all well aware that there are just too many Covid numbers increasing. America has elected a new president yet the old one is refusing to concede. Still, just too many, too many’s. Heretofore…not too many solutions…not too many answers…not too many resolutions. As of yet, not too many politicians, not too many governmental officials and not too many world leaders seem to really care enough to collaborate.

Agonizingly, what I’m realizing about these “too many” circumstances is that too many of them are unprecedented, unparalleled, atypical. Consequently, leaving populations befuddled, leaders discombobulated, families disjointed, younger people indifferent, middle-aged people intolerant and older people disenfranchised and too many dreams deferred.

Langston Hughes poetically expressed “what happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Please, don’t let your dreams dry up! The Star of Bethlehem subduedly reminded me that although there were too many, too many’s in 2020, in the year 2021, there is still hope. It doesn’t’ matter what it looks like--continue to dream. Then, make your dreams a reality--inspired by God and authored by you!

Stargazing at the Star of Bethlehem supplied me with a reinvigorated sense of optimism in the midst of transition. Why not make 2021 your year of action? Make it your year of encouragement. In 2021, hold your head up. Look to the sky and know that God is still seated on the throne (far above the stars) and watch Him move on your behalf.

Be blessed in 2021.

Shalom