It’s been a year of non-blogging for me, since other things have taken precedence. Although much of 2020 offered up negatives, our family can also report a big 2020-positive. My 15th grandchild, Elias, was born.
This little guy arrived before his due date—well before. At 7 weeks premature, he was expected to need lots of assistance from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but he surprised us all. Though he weighed only 4 pounds 3 ounces, he was in great condition and hung around the hospital for just 18 days.
The nurses were impressed with his fast progress, marveling that he never even needed oxygen. Now, three months later, his development is right on schedule, evidenced by his crinkly-eye smiles and lots of direct eye contact.
His diligent parents, Louisa and Teddy, are delighting in this wondrous 2020-positive.
No year, however, is without its negatives, and 
2020 delivered a big one to our family. My brother Tom and his wife Leslie were both killed in their own home by an intruder, a shock from which all of us are still trying to recover. The mystery remains unsolved, and our hearts are broken.
On Friday, a new calendar year begins—day #1, week #1, month #1. None of us knows what will happen on the 364 days that will follow, though we’ll probably try to guess. But as my mother used to say, “God only knows, and he won’t tell.”
So how can we move into the new year with confidence when so much is uncertain? There’s only one way—to believe that our omniscient God will tell us everything we need to know, when we need to know it. And all of it, what we’re surmising and what actually occurs, will be coupled with his promise that he’s got the whole world in his hands. That means we as his children have nothing to fear.
As hard as it is for us not to know what’s ahead, we should remember that in every year, there will be negatives but also positives. Our best bet, then, is to simply trust God, leaning on his power and wisdom instead of our own.
“Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36)
