What’s Your 2020 verdict?

Songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine wrote the classic song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for Judy Garland’s 1944 movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. As for me, I love the version by Michael Bublé, and is rather apt for me as I think of how we sang this song last Christmas when we were with family, it was such a fun time, we had our siblings travel from different parts of the world and we truly had a ‘Merry Little Christmas’! This morning, I sat back and reflected on our ‘Last Christmas’ and how we have been in 2020:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on
Our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yule-tide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be miles away

We sang that our ‘Troubles will be out of sight‘ and that ‘From now on, our troubles will be miles away‘. As I reflect, since last Christmas it’s been very different:

• January – March:
  • Australian Bushfires Kill at Least 478 People
  • Flash Floods in Indonesia Kills 66 People
  • Earthquake kills 41 People in Turkey
  • Volcano Eruption in the Philippines Kills 39 People
  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they are stepping down from their duties as senior royals in Buckingham Palace
  • A Ukrainian flight crashes in Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 passengers on board
  • Kobe and Gigi Bryant, along with seven other passengers, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California
  • The United Kingdom withdraws from the European Union
• March: Coronavirus COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization with infection rates increasing by the day and many deaths worldwide
• May:
  • Cyclone Amphan Kills More Than 85 People in Bangladesh and India
  • African American George Floyd’s arrest and murder ignites widespread condemnation and protests in the US
  • A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed into houses in Karachi on May 22, killing 97 people. Miraculously, two passengers survived the crash
• August:
  • Hurricane Laura Kills 77 People in Louisiana and Texas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti,
  • Flash Floods Kill More Than 150 People in Afghanistan
  • A massive explosion from Beirut’s port, where 2,750 tones of highly explosive ammonium nitrate shatters the nation
• October: Earthquake and Tsunami Kill 117 People in Greece and Turkey
• November:
  • Hurricane Eta Kills At Least 150 People in Central America
  • Typhoon Kills 42 People in Philippines
  • Former Vice-President Joe Biden declared the winner of the US Presidential race, four days after the US election, defeating sitting President Donald Trump (final decision on January 6),
  • BioNTech and Pfizer announce their COVID-19 vaccine to be over 90% effective in a first look at the results from their phase 3 trial involving nearly 44,000 people

Regardless of all, the one that kept us all troubled was COVID. It brought about fear, uncertainty and death. The entire world came to a standstill, something that none of us have every experienced in our lifetime.

I am pondering, it’s been crazy indeed. However, how do I look at 2020 and what is my verdict?

• With the initial announcement in March, our eldest son was able to return home as he was just a few km’s away in uni.
• Online school for our younger son began immediately and he has coped well
• Uni took a while, however it began eventually and our eldest has been his virtual program
• Work commenced by May, it has been a struggle, however blessings followed each month giving us the opportunity to sustain and progress
• We have remained healthy, happy and content
• We remained virtually connected with family and friends through bible study, devotion and numerous friend connections
• We developed closer relationship with each other as a family and added new solid friendships
• We’ve understood that life is not in our control and that we must be ready to leave this earthly life any
• Face to face church finally commenced in November and we have been able to join in the fellowship as a family
• We grew in studying, understanding and practicing the word of God in a more deeper manner
• We have learned to depend entirely on our God and have devoted to a lot more time in prayer
• We have learned to be satisfied with what we have, count our blessings and have grown to be a lot more thankful for everything

Christmas this year was surely unlike other years for all of us!

Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now