Yard games cease as five-year-old Jett looks up and asks, “Who’s coming to my house?” We wonder the same…Lumbering up our long drive is a truck. A U-Haul truck. What in the world? But as the guy jumps down he says with a grimace,
“My UPS truck broke down and this is what they gave me.”
But weirder still:
Deep in the country, her husband takes the boys for a “camping trip” below the pond’s dam, a couple hundred feet from their house. Enjoying some “me” time, my friend settles into a few episodes of mindless TV. Around midnight vehicle lights illuminate her backyard. Thinking it’s her husband, she looks out to see an unmarked white van—pulled up on the grass in the back. Who does that anyway? And at midnight? Panicked she calls her husband who sees the lights and is already jumping in his pickup to find out what is going on.
“What are you doing on my property??” He demands.
“I am just delivering your Christmas tree—see here it is.” And the stranger promptly opens the back of his truck revealing piles of packages and a Christmas tree marked for them.
“I’m sorry it’s so late, I’m sooo behind.”
Really? Midnight? Are you crazy?
911 had already been called, so we don’t know if the police ever found the mysterious delivery driver. But they peel out in the right direction to give chase…
Obviously, deliveries looked different this year along with lots of other things:
Record hurricanes crashed. Rampant wildfires trashed.
Unemployment bashed. Riots smashed.
Work from home soared. And we found ways to not be bored.
We baked yeast bread. Till we were too well fed,
And left our jeans forgotten in the closet.
We zoomed wearing pajamas on the bottom and hair and makeup on the top. And vowed not to pause it.
We Tic Tok-ed. And tie dyed.
And the scales said we ate too much of the fried. (And everything else.)
Netflix ruled.
Binge watching fooled
Election strife drooled.
Amazon became a giant plus,
USPS, Fed-ex and UPS joined the stuggle-to-keep-up-bus.
Doom scrolling became the daily grind
COVID put us all in a bind.
Mask wearing Mama. Social distancing comma.
Friend and family disagreement-over-it-drama.
We hoped when 2020 was done, the battle would have been won.
But as 2021 arrives, the virus still thrives.
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Sorry for the silly rhymes (The preacher and I tease about rhymes. He says jokingly that it’s not a poem if it doesn’t rhyme—I say I will never rhyme a poem. Blew that didn’t’ I…)
For the first time in our lifetimes, the global worries of 2020 were the same from Africa to Atlanta.
How to stay well and what will happen if we don’t.
How will we keep our family safe, our friends, our community?
Like packages lost in the mail, we were left with an uncertain future. But we survived this crisis thus far, so our New Year’s resolutions may look different this year. We may take less for granted and count our blessings in lieu of the tragedies surrounding us.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
Winston Churchill
Are we now rewired to think differently about the future? We have all been slapped with a good dose of the fragility of life. So will we cherish our blessings and refuse to take them for granted?
We can hope. Only time will tell and historically we have short memories.
But the final answer to all our anxiety never changes. Though we can all agree 2020 stunk, we have a God who is consistent and faithful. He is Lord over any pandemic and over all our problems and pain. So whatever 2021 brings, He gave us resiliency so let’s vow to remember—we will prevail with God driving the truck.
“When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil,
I AM the one who keeps its foundations firm.”
Psalm 75:3 NLT
What will your top resolution be for 2021?