I’m praying you had a wonderful Christmas with your family, taking every opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior. 

As we wrap up 2020, it feels like there’s so much to digest and reflect on after all we’ve been through. It’s crazy to think back to last year at this time and consider all the things we didn’t realize were heading our way. 

This week we’re asking for God’s protection over our children. 

It feels like the need for protection has new meaning after the year we just experienced. But can I encourage you to take a few minutes this week to reflect on how God has been faithful in protecting you and your family in 2020? 

As you do this, I want to share an excerpt of a letter I wrote to “Dear Pre-COVID Me” last year. My hope is that it will remind you (like it did me) to thank God for his faithfulness and presence in all of the hard places we’ve faced.  

Pre-COVID me, please know that somewhere along the way you’re going to stop to ask a really vulnerable but important question: God, where are you in the middle of this?

The answer may be hard to find as the days grow longer and the news seems darker. But dig deep. It’s there. He’s there.

You’ll find him in the still small places where he always has been and always will be revealing his greatest glory.   

Look for God in everything from the birthday parades to the family baseball games. You’ll find him in the return of families around the dinner table and the unrushed nightly bedtime routines. He’s on your countless walks around the neighborhood and in the Zoom reunions with extended family.

You’ll feel his presence when you’re playing board games with your kids, teaching them how to cook and clean, and especially when you see your previously overcommitted family finding rest and perspective in a new, simplified routine.

You’ll hear amazing stories of God working through our frontline workers, caring selflessly for the sickest of patients and often at the expense of their own families. He’ll be evident in the melody of pots and pans banging from the balconies of high-rises as people unite in the most difficult of times.

God’s hand will be visible as communities rally together to support local businesses and as friends and neighbors dust off old sewing machines to make face masks to protect each other. You’ll feel his presence when you look up to see the Blue Angels soar through the sky, or even as you look down and find messages of hope in colorful sidewalk chalk.

I guess what I would want you to know is that there are going to be some really hard times to weather, but, in the middle of the uncertainty, there’s an opportunity to reaffirm God’s promise that he is with us, for us, and will never leave us. 

I’m looking forward to praying protection over our kids this week with my friend Jerica Olson on the podcast. Glad you’re with us.

Happy New Year!

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