The week after Christmas and the first half of January is the “season for exchanging.”  Whatever it is, it isn’t what we wanted, it isn’t the right color, it’s not our style, it isn’t what we were looking for, it didn’t fit. And so we set out to return it, trade it, barter it, swap it, or substitute it for something different.

 

LIKE THE YEAR 2020

that mentally, emotionally, and with huge relief many say, we want to exchange. 2020 is the proverbial ugly sweater. Let’s return it, send it back. We deserve better. We want a New Year. We don’t know anything about 2021, but it already looks better than 2020. Folded neatly. Airbrushed. Picture perfect. The problem is, we are told, there are no 2020 returns. We soiled it, tore it, broke it ourselves. We can’t take it back. It’s not just history … it’s our story. We own it now. Even if it didn’t fit.

 

IN 2020

there just wasn’t a right color for anybody—Black Lives Matter. White may not even be a color at all. What? That’s what the scientist says. He bases his answer on physics: “Black is not a color, white is a color.” On the other hand, the artist disagrees. She says,“Not true. Black is a color, white is not a color.”

 

“Wait, what are we talking about here. This is not even the right question. Are you not listening?” Well, that is good question. “Are we not listening?” Some married couples, even children know this. They know it’s hard to hear, much less really listen, when there is yelling, name calling and objects being thrown. Scary, yes. Understanding? Healing? Building toward a future together? It doesn’t fit.

 

2020

didn’t seem like we were learning from history; more like ripping it apart in hurt-filled anger, accusing, denying, pretending whatever was good or bad didn’t happen. Cancel culture. Delegitimize authority. Twist lawful protest into lawless chaos. If you are not on my side, you don’t count. You don’t care. You don’t, you won’t, you can’t understand. You don’t fit.

 

IN 2020

there were those of us who exchanged Joel’s ‘church’ for Joel’s ‘place,’ thinking it would be a better fit where, with drink in hand, one could at least talk to the bartender or the person on the next stool, instead of sitting alone in a pew, not relating to the pastor or to anyone nearby. Then as if things weren’t bad enough, they closed Joel’s ‘church’ and Joel’s ‘place’ because someone … were they brown or yellow? … for once color didn’t matter … someone had done the unthinkable!

 

AND SUDDENLY IN 2020

we were all afraid of something having no color at all, an invisible, deadly something quickly morphing into an out-of-control worldwide pandemic. What to do? This didn’t fit for sure. Like Pilate of old we began “washing our hands” … this time for 20 seconds with soap and water and several times a day, so as not to be judged responsible for ours or another mortal’s death (maybe!).[1]

 

IN 2020

faith in a God who might or might not be there was nudged to one side, replaced by the more familiar fear of the unknown. If we have no real answer and no God to believe in, then what? It has to be science, right? Science never let us down. Science is the Answer. Yes. After all, religion has been on the way out for at least a generation. The faith of the elders our children found out, from professors at Harvard and other institutions of (much higher) learning, was only a mythical crutch their parents used to lean on.

 

ESPECIALLY ‘JESUS-STYLE’ RELIGION

Even if it had been cool once, we’ve moved on. Haven’t opened a Bible in years, if ever. Never needed it. We just made it through another holiday. A time for lights (always more than our neighbors), family get-togethers (well, those didn’t happen), sleighs and reindeer (okay, that was a fun e-card), Hallmark Christmas movies (sigh) during football season (the reason why two televisions per family are essential) and the occasional manger scene (just not in front of our schools or city halls).

 

STILL, IF YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH

you may remember singing as a child in Sunday school:

Jesus loves the little children

All the children of the world

Red and yellow, black and white

They are precious in his sight

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

 

Songwriter, George Root (1820-1895), first created the tune as a Civil War song, one of several during an American season of great upheaval and stress, kind of like 2020. He later agreed with Baptist pastor Clare Herbert Woolston (1856-1927) that it needed to be something more. And so in the late 1800s, Woolston penned the lyrics above, and added these below to the song we know as, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

 

“Come to Me and never fear,
For I love the little children of the world;
I will take you by the hand,
Lead you to the better land,
For I love the little children of the world.”

     (Alternate refrain)

Jesus died for all the children,

All the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white,

All are precious in His sight,

Jesus died for all the children of the world.

 

“FAITH IS NATURAL

to a child, for complete physical dependence is accompanied by absolute emotional confidence,” writes Christian educator Lois LeBar[2] The problem surfaces when parents exchange faith in a God who is there for no real reason other than it didn’t fit.

 

Jesus puts it like this: “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.[3]

 

2020 DIDN’T FIT

on many levels, but we can’t exchange it. Cancelling culture, tearing down statues, renaming schools or military bases or football teams is like the ugly sweater. We can soil it, tear it, hide it, but it is still an ugly sweater. Changing hearts, not names is the best place to start, asking forgiveness from God and from each other for the myriad ways we mishandled 2020. All of us. And it was a free gift when we started don’t forget.

 

So, Lord, forgive us. Here we are holding 2021 in our ‘freshly washed for 20 seconds in soap and water’ hands. Hopeful as to what can happen going forward. As we seek to listen well to the wisdom of Jesus, permit us to “return to square one and begin again.” Not because we deserve it. But because it fits!

Young and old …

We are all the children of the world

Red and yellow, black and white

We are precious in his sight

 

May Jesus keep us close in 2021.

 

 

 

 

[1] Matthew 27:24

[2] Children in the Bible School by Lois LeBar, 1952

[3] Matthew 18:3,4