An Open Letter to 2021

 

   Dear 2021,

    We’re not well acquainted yet, but I thought I’d say hi before you’re too old and accomplished to recognize a small chick like me. To be completely honest, so far I keep mistaking you for your notorious older brother, and giving him the day’s credit any time something needs to be dated. But you sure have been long anticipated. You know that famous older brother I mentioned? Yeah, lots of folks hate his guts. I can’t say that I blame them... he was a doozie. But you. Lots of folks hope you’ll be the superhero that saves the day (or the year.) You’re like the middle child everyone hopes will keep it together when the guinea pig oldest child derails. 

   That’s a lot of pressure for one little year, and it’s not often that the pressure is as high as it is when you’re only five days old. I want to encourage you though: don’t take it too much to heart. We may not know you well yet, but we’ll get there: at 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day.   And who knows? You might be startlingly similar to your “black sheep” predecessor. Heck, you might even turn out to be twins. But that’s not your fault, you’re working with what you’ve got, and 2020’s mess doesn’t disappear like Cinderella’s carriage at midnight. 

I’ve got to be honest, I’m in the dark on almost everything about you: I don’t know what you look like, I don’t know what leaders will rise to shape your history, I don’t know whether we’ll gain back some freedom, or if those freedoms will fade, perhaps, irrevocably. I definitely don’t know what tomorrow will do to us all. Everything about you is vague and agonizingly uncertain. But here is what I am certain about: He knows. 

The One who “knit me together in my mother’s womb” formed you. The One who named me before time began, sets each of your days into motion. Whoever leads us this year, their heart is “a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will.” Most importantly, come what may, I get to rejoice with Paul who says:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37, ESV)

That’s my comfort and strength. Just to be inseparable from  the love of God through Christ Jesus is enough to face you with a quiet confidence. I get to watch Him weave you into His beautiful tapestry of the ages, (including years like crazy ol’ 2020,) and marvel at His perfect work. 

I get to gain more Christ living through you, and that sets my soul on fire.

So here’s to my Maker and yours, 2021. I can’t wait to see what He has planned for you. 

xoxo,

Jillian Paige