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Raise an Ebenezer for 2020

Have you seen the Christmas ornaments "celebrating" 2020? Toilet paper rolls, face masks, quarantine, social distancing, distance learning . . . all of the bizarre things of this year "commemorated" to be chuckled (or cried, depending on your year) over for Christmases to come. I cannot count how many times I have uttered (or heard uttered) the phrase, "what a weird season." And a long one, too -- a season we're not out of yet, though I join with those who are optimistic for an upswing by the end of January or so.

This morning we sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing at church, and ever since my praise team rehearsed it on Thursday, I can't stop thinking about the second verse: "Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I'm come." The story of the Ebenezer stone from 1 Samuel 7 is one I've carried with me since my divorce in my mid-20s, when a friend gifted me a small stone with reference to Samuel. "Thus far the Lord has helped us," Samuel says as he sets up a stone to remember God's victory and his faithfulness. As it happens, the day she gave me the stone was the same day I met Isaac. Thus far the Lord has helped me indeed, and beyond.

All the way to this.

So as I sang the hymn multiple times this weekend, in rehearsal and in the service, I kept wondering: what sort of monumental Ebenezer stone will we need to set up after this crazy year is over?! If a Christmas ornament is the way to go, so be it! For even in wildfires/pandemics/racial riots/isolation/the worst of all possible educational situations/whatever else your year has held, God is sovereign, and he is faithful, and that is worth remembering.

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