Following Where Grace Leads

As the last grains of sand sift

through the hour glass 

and pile high to 

proclaim 

2020 

is past-

a feeling of 

relief descends

even as new hope arises! 

A year like no other recedes

and yet its residue 

leaves so many

buried under

a pile

of burdens

brought on by

a spikey round virus

both devastating and deadly.

Sanitized, masked and social distanced

we’ve been sad and saddened;

mad and maddened by

empty promises and full-throated lies

leaving Truth to top the endangered virtue list.

Quarantined, virtual-schooled and working from home

have provided “dangers, toils and snares,” 

tightened belts, dashed dreams, and hoarded necessities.

Some of it you know firsthand. Some of it you have heard about.

Most of it has been the subject of your prayers

while hoping no more of those you know and love

will be numbered among the mounting count

of lives forever changed or lost in a lonely sterile room.

Gratefully, as these words are written and read

we are among those who survived the worst,

and were spared the deeper struggles,

to live to greet the new year in faith with hope to love and serve. 

“Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 

‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.” 

[Amazing Grace, verse 3]  John Newton, 1779