2020 In Retrospect: Joy and Sorrow

Angela, Penelope, & Chad

2020 was a year of joy and sorrow for us as we know it was for so many others. Susan contracted COVID-19 in June of this year. Thankfully, she had minimal symptoms and recovered quickly. Angela and I were excited to get the news that we would be having another baby. We were heartbroken recently to find out that our little baby boy had passed away in a late miscarriage. We are still working through our grief, but we trust in the Lord. I cannot begin to explain why things happen the way they do. The only conclusion I can ever come to is that God is in control, and He is good. I know that His word is the only foundation upon which I can stand.

Job 1:10 says, “If we take happiness from God’s hand, must we not take sorrow too?”

The late Henri Nouwen wrote:

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives—the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections—that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

Thankfulness in times of sorrow is much easier said than done to be sure. But I know of no other place to run than the arms of our Savior and no other place to rest than under the shadow of His wings.

-Chad