Beauty In The Valley

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Every year on Thanksgiving Day, my family has, what we call, the table cloth tradition. My mom will pick a shape related to the holiday (let’s use a pumpkin for the sake of the example) and she will stamp a pumpkin on the table cloth for each person that comes to our Thanksgiving feast. So if we have 12 people show up, there would be 12 pumpkins stamped on the table cloth.

From there, each person in attendance takes a sharpie and writes on their pumpkin at least one thing they’re thankful for that happened this year. No generic answers like “Family, friends, and good health” are allowed. We each have to point to something that happened during the current year that we’re grateful for and write it on the table cloth.

This is one of my favorite holiday traditions my family does. I look forward to it every year. But I’ve got to be honest with you. I had a little panic moment the other day because I thought, “This year has been pretty rough…what in the world am I going to write on the table cloth this year?”

At first glance, I’m sure many of us can agree that 2020 hasn’t been the best year yet. The difficulties and struggles might look a little different for each of us, but the overarching themes of hardship, loneliness, division, and pain are woven throughout many of our stories this year. There is so much we had to do that we didn’t want to do. And there were many things we had been looking forward to doing that were either altered, postponed, or cancelled all together. Needless to say, we were discouraged and disheartened a lot in 2020.

But that doesn’t mean we have nothing to be thankful for. Just because the struggles are at the forefront of our minds doesn’t mean that’s all there is. In fact, when I was driving down the road the other day thinking about what I was going to write on the table cloth, I was able to come up with a pretty long list the more I reflected on this past year.

What that tells me is that gratitude is all about perspective. Are we willing to widen our gaze to see what unexpected blessings came along this year? Or are we going to remain focused on the disappointment and unmet expectations? Are we willing to dig a little deeper to identify all that we can to thank the Lord for? Or are we going to hold onto our surface perspective, zoning in on what we wish didn’t happen this year?

We need to take the time to answer these questions if we’re going to be able to find gratitude in the midst of circumstances where gratitude is hard to find. What distinguishes us as followers of Jesus is our willingness to look for good in the bad, to look for peace in the unrest, to look for joy in the discouragement, and to look for hope in the disappointment. Anyone can find joy, peace, and hope when life is going well. But it’s finding those things when life doesn’t look the way you thought it would that makes the difference. It’s what makes you different.

I’m going to leave you with some encouragement from my friend, Madison. She wrote this on her Instagram earlier this year, and I wrote it in my journal so I wouldn’t forget it. Her words, I believe, are exactly what we need as we’re walking through the valley that is 2020.

It’s easy to look back at picture-perfect memories and forget that, even in the best seasons of life, we couldn’t see around the next bend in the road. It’s easy to celebrate when we know the outcome, but different to trust that everything is going to be okay when we aren’t given an aerial view of life. When things beyond our control steal our peace and break our hearts, we can rest knowing that our stories are still held in His hands. The view from the mountaintop is great. But the valley can be beautiful too.