There was much worldwide jubilation when 2020 crossed over into 2021. “What an awful year,” I heard countless people exclaim. “So glad to be rid of it.”
It was—for me—a hard New Year’s Eve to sit through, let alone celebrate. At our house, no banging of pots and hollering joyfully out the front door, just a perfunctory toast and off to bed. Where I lay awake for hours worrying about 2021. The party boat set sail without me. .
A lot of folks are looking to 2021 as a do-over of 2020. Quite a few have said they’d like to pretend 2020 didn’t even happen. I can understand, but still … I wonder what makes us think 2021 is going to be any better than its predecessor?
I have to bite my lip and appear cheerful when I just know something dreadful lurks below, waiting to surprise and attack. A new strain of COVID-19? Yep. Another tier of lock-downs? Sure thing. Vaccines that might have side effects? Right.
The promotional tag for filmmaker Stephen Spielberg’s 1975 mega-hit “Jaws” read, “You’ll never go in the water again.” The terror, it implied, was limited solely to the ocean. Good old terra firma was safe! I liked that idea. I felt good about that idea. Just stay away from the seashore. Easy peasy.
But today, even being on land isn’t without risk. Worse than a big sea predator—which at least might have a fin sticking up out of the waves to warn you—is the ever-abounding threat of disease. That, to me, is scarier than any fish.
You’ll recall that the heroic sheriff in “Jaws” decides to track down and destroy the threat—just as thousands of epidemiologists and chemists and researchers around the globe are doing right now. Despite all the merry-making that “2020 is history,” the fin continues to circle; the COVID-19 shark is hungry.
While it’s always the right time to embrace new beginnings—and a new year is no exception—we should remember as we enter 2021 to partner our partying with prayer.
Pray as hard and with as much dedication as our life-savers are dedicating to us.
Pray for health and well-being of those who care for others, for those we love and those everywhere who are at risk.
Pray to accept our limitations and yet still live to our fullest capacity.
Actor Roy Scheider, as the sheriff in “Jaws,” had an extremely close-up encounter with the enemy and —in true deadpan delivery—remarked to his hired captain, “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”
Will that bigger boat for you be the tropical cruise you were forced by the pandemic to cancel? Doubtful. Will it offer buffet dinners and nightly dancing and fun shore excursions? Nope. But maybe it will consist of building stronger relationships with loved ones … growing a sense of comfort in times of anxiety … of glimpsing and seizing upon opportunities for enrichment and growth. Whatever ship you sail in 2021, God will be at the helm navigating the tricky waters.
—Cathy Betts Sapunor
