By Rev. Donn Brammer :

So the year 2020 is over but the pandemic is not. The health challenges and safety protocols are still with us, and while washing hands has always been a good idea, like most people, I’m a bit tired of masks and social distancing, of not going out to eat, or being with friends.

Fortunately the pandemic is not the only thing still with us. We may put our Christmas decorations away but the promise of                               Christmas never goes away: God with us!

We realize that the New Year will not bring immediate changes at the stroke of midnight, but we also know that because of God’s faithfulness, we can look forward to the New Year with hope instead of despair, with peace instead of anxiety, with confidence instead of doubt.

We know that whatever we face in 2021 we will not face it alone, that God is with us. As this past year has shown us, that does not mean that everything is going to go our way, it does not mean that everything is going to be smooth or easy, but knowing God is with us comforts us, strengthens us, encourages us, for whatever challenges we face.

In one of our family’s favorite movies, “The Emperor’s New Groove,”  Pacha and Kuzco have faced one disaster after another; they escape from jaguars only to find themselves hopelessly tied to a tree stump on the side of a cliff, then the tree stump breaks, and they fall hundreds of feet into a river that careens them through rapids and is now rushing them downstream when Pacha notices something and says, “Uh-oh.”

And Kuzco says, “Don’t tell me. We’re about to go over a huge waterfall.”

“Yep.”

“Sharp rocks at the bottom?”

“Most likely.”

“Bring it on.”

I had no idea that the year 2020 would go the way it did, and I have no idea what 2021 is going to bring, but I do know that God is with us and so I say,

“Bring it on.”