By Alison Feinauer
So it finally happened! We were exposed! After all the precautions, rules, after all this time, IT finally happened. The one person we have been trying so hard to protect, my dad, he was actually the one who gave Covid to us.
At Christmas, I had planned and bought and wrapped and planned a little more (you know what I’m talking about), just to have it all come to a screeching halt.
Of course, right before it all happened I had said to a friend, “I wish I could just have a restful holiday with a little bit of peace and quiet.”
She said, “I’ll pray for that to happen for you.” I said, “thank you,” not knowing that God would have a funny way of answering that prayer.
After I ran through a plethora of emotions: worry, disappointment, regret, anger, sadness then finally acceptance and contentment, I realized that my God, my Maker, my Creator, the Keeper of my Heart, the Writer of my Story, had good in store for me out of this.
He gave me two precious weeks with my husband and son inside of our warm, peaceful home to be together in a place of rest, rescue, and respite.
Was it His plan all along? I don’t know, but I know that he turns our disappointments into appointments for good. His ways are HIGHER!
I sat down to write about 2020. I wrote about my disappointments, all the good that came from that year, and all my desires for this next year.
Some call them goals, others resolutions. I decided to label them desires and put them before the Lord in a posture that I’ve never taken before. If 2020 taught me anything, it’s to be open handed with everything.
I’m now learning to embrace not being in control. Previously, I longed for control, routine, schedule, and knowing what’s to come. I’ve traded UP for Peace knowing that our Father is able and fully capable to do Exceedingly and Abundantly beyond all I can ask or imagine no matter the circumstance, no matter what is going on. I can trust Him.
2020 wasn’t a failed year, it was a Faith building year.
You too can share in this confidence in our Creator. I encourage you to take these verses and write them on your heart. Memorize them and cling to them. I bless you with them now.
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:14-20 NIV).
