When we moved to Hawaii at the beginning of the year, we regularly trekked through rain-filled, muddy potholes along our street. It turns out that was the rainy season, and now that the weather is hot and dry, we don't have to worry about muddy puddles. (We didn't even get enough rain to fill a puddle when a hurricane was expected to hit a couple of months ago.)
Our days are hot, but evenings are breezy and just right for a family walk. I'm not experiencing the cooler fall weather I'm used to in September. We like living in Hawaii, although 2020 has been a complicated year and certainly hasn't turned out like I had imagined it would.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed culture and daily life.
Racial tension has gripped America.
Plus, these things have also been politicized, and it's an election year so everybody is taking sides.
Many people I know have been affected by death this year. Death of a loved one. Death due to miscarriage, disease, or suicide, or murder.
Lots of people are struggling financially.
My social media feed reflects all of the above (and more), and it's saturated with memes about what a crappy year 2020 has been.
Even living in Hawaii, which some call "paradise," has been difficult. For the past 6 months we've experienced varying degrees of regulations related to the pandemic. Stay-at-home-orders, closed beaches and parks, masks required, hefty fines for those who defy the mandates. Even singing is regulated these days. The economy here is a mess.
We have an air-conditioned home, my husband has a stable job, we'll soon have two children after many years of waiting, and our lives are good! At the same time, life these days can feel challenging.
It's kind of like a mud puddle.
Walking past those dried-up ruts in our road earlier this week reminded me of the rain puddles many months ago. Actually, a specific moment with a specific puddle came to mind.
In March 2020, as communities began to require lockdowns, the island of Oahu enforced their first COVID-related stay-at-home order. I didn't like the sound of that. I was new here, ready to get out and make friends and explore God's beautiful creation! I didn't want to stay home all of the time. Ugh!
I looked out the window that evening the order was announced, and I could see a marvelous rainbow. I'm thankful that rainbows frequently arch through the skies here. That particular rainbow reminded me that we have an all-knowing Creator with a Heavenly perspective. He saw all of this coming: the pandemic, racial issues, political disagreements, wildfires, hurricanes, economic trouble, all during an election year. You name it, God knew about it.
That evening, before the lockdown took effect, my husband, our toddler, and I decided to take a drive out to watch the sunset over the North Shore. As we walked down the driveway toward our car, I noticed that the rainbow continued to linger overhead. It hung out in the sky for a couple of hours that evening!
Then, as I walked by one of those springtime puddles, I saw a reflection of the rainbow in the muddy water.
I paused to take a picture.
I'm thinking about that rainbow in the mud puddle again right now.
Am I going to focus on the mud puddle that 2020 resembles?
Or will I look for the rainbow in the middle of the mess?
It might be particularly easy this year to look at our circumstances and situations and declare how bad they are. But if we slow down and look around, we can see something good happening!
Good things are happening this year, and the year is not over yet! God is good, even in the middle of "the mud puddle."
Psalm 23:6 (NKJV) says, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." What if we pause and look back at recent months to see some of God's goodness? God's goodness has been following us! Let's look for it.
Psalm 33:5 (NKJV) says, "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." If this earth is FULL of God's goodness, we can simply look for it and find it. We can taste and see His goodness!
I'll agree with you if you say that 2020 has been a difficult year. I believe that it is not beyond redemption. It's not over. Even if it looks like a muddy mess, you CAN find the good in it.
This year has changed me. It has slowed me down, refocused me, and totally shifted my sense of "normal." I haven't enjoyed all of that, but I am trusting that this divine redirecting and reshaping is ultimately being worked out for good.
In our home, there are good things happening. We have a toddler who is thriving. We have a baby boy due in a few months, a gift from God late in life. I'm learning how to be content at home. I'm getting our home in order. I'm reading, and I'm writing, and I'm not watching TV! My husband's job is going well. These are GOOD things, gifts from a good God, even in a complicated world. These good things are happening even though we live in Hawaii and haven't been allowed on the beach for a while, thanks to the COVID lockdown!
How can you pause to see the goodness of God that is chasing you through 2020? Here are some suggestions:
Take another look at your mud puddle and see if you can find the rainbow. I'm speaking metaphorically, by the way. :)
Say it out loud. Tell God that He's good. Thank Him for that good thing, that rainbow that you discovered in your mud puddle.
Sing it! Go ahead, choose a song that talks about how God is so good, and start singing it!
Tell someone else about it. Tell someone how God has been good to you even through this difficult year. Encourage that person to contemplate the goodness of God.
One step at a time, let's lift our eyes upward to the One who dwells in the Heavens (Psalm 123:1) and let's discover the goodness of God that is following us - even in 2020.
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I'm Betsy Herman, and I've been writing here and there for many years. I blog here at www.lovethatbetsy.com as well as at https://www.hopeduringinfertility.com/infertility-topics/. I've published 3 books and am working on another! You can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/Betsy-Herman/e/B00SICW9IS.
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