I received my first pair of glasses when I was about five years old, but I’m pretty sure my eyesight needed help long before that. I don’t remember there ever being a time when I didn’t need help seeing. When I first wake up in the morning, everything is fuzzy. Every light radiates like a star on the top of a Christmas tree, and every object looks like a fuzzy multi-colored blob. The biological lenses in my eye are not quite right so I need help to see twenty-twenty. That’s why one of the first things I do every morning is a put a little plastic lens in my eye. That lens I put on helps me see the world more clearly. Without it, I would struggle to see what’s in front of me.

This January marks more than a new year; it’s also a new decade. From now on when we hear someone mention the “20s,” they’re talking about today. A new decade means new possibilities and new opportunities. But it also lets us reflect on where we have come. Some of us weren’t even born ten years ago. Others were still in school, college, or had just started our first job. Some of us were happily married while others knew they needed to separate. And many of us were surrounded with loved ones who will not be entering this new decade with us. Even if we do not feel that January 2020 feels any different than January 2010, our lives and our world have changed. Yet, regardless of whatever change we’ve gone through, God has been with us through it all. And the Jesus who loved you in January 2010 is the same Jesus who loves you now.

This new decade provides us an opportunity to look forward. We can be honest about everything we’ve gone through. We can admit the ways things haven’t turned out they way they should. And we can take time to worship, pray, and be with Jesus – and to discover how he’s been with us through it all. When we notice that Jesus has always been part of our lives, I believe that’s when we gain a new perspective on the life we’ve lived. That new perspective then becomes a new lens as we look forward to the future that’s about to come. The new lens helps focus us, noticing the ways God is in the world and in our lives. And when we see God more clearly, we might also learn how to love ourselves, world and neighbors in a deeper and more meaningful way. The 2020s won’t be entirely the same as the 2010s. But maybe we can choose to live through the 2020s with our eyes seeing the Jesus who is always there.

See you in church!

Pastor Marc