Twenty twenty.

2020. The year no one expected. The year many were indoors for months on end. The year where the busiest cities in the world paused, the crowds dispersed, the shops shut. Families apart for a long time, with minimal to no physical contact. 

You've learnt to smile with your eyes, you've learnt the importance of technology. You've learnt to be grateful for what you've got. You've learnt how privileged you really are. I certainly have. 

2020, a year where so many plans were cancelled, postponed, delayed. New plans made, new plans cancelled. A year of heartaches, loneliness, confusion, frustration. A year of joy, of quietness, of productivity, of unexpectedness. 

2020, a year with much to be thankful for. 
Through difficulties, I'm thankful for friends and family who have been a stable companion, a listening ear, an encouraging pal. 
I'm thankful for a job that keeps going when times have been so tough on so many. 
I'm thankful for a workplace that is friendly enough to feel like you're apart of something. 
I'm thankful for the church family, who despite rough and difficult times, to continue preaching the good news of the gospel through various media, who had faithfully continued to feed the sheep.
I'm thankful for so many material things, a car, a roof, a bed, running water and more than sufficient food. 
I'm thankful for friends, near and far who checks in, through calls, and pray with and for you, encouraging you in your walk with God. 
I'm thankful for Jesus, who had come as a helpless baby, for the sake of love, to reconcile us back to God the Father, the Creator. 
I'm thankful that God does not leave us helpless in our sins, but graciously provide a way of salvation, through Jesus' death on the Cross, and His resurrection that shows He has defeated death and sin. 
I'm thankful for the many people who remind me of that. 
I'm thankful for many things, many of which I cannot boast in myself. 

2020 was difficult, challenging, frustrating, but tough times are growth times. 
If 2021 continues to be as hard and difficult, maybe at the end of it, we can rejoice and marvel at how we've grown in the Lord and praise Him. 

One thing that I know is sure, is that God is sovereign and good. I am called to be a faithful servant of His', and I know that my future is secured in His everlasting arms. 

To more grateful habits, and more runs:
Happy new year!

Hannah