Leading up to this year of 2020, the prophecies were clear. Many people were saying that 2020 would be a year of “20/20 vision.” In other words, it would be a year when God would allow us to see things clearly.

11 months into the year, it almost seems funny, doesn’t it? Many people would argue that 2020 has been a “year from hell.” The political division, Covid-19 with hundreds of thousands of deaths, and much more, has caused many to feel wearisome in this year. But the more I’ve reflected lately on 2020, I’m starting to see how the “20/20 Vision” prophecies have come true, in a way that we didn’t expect.

In one way or the other, almost all of us were forced to slow down this year. Some people were forced to go on unemployment. Many of us had to spend much more time at home than usual. Whichever way it landed for you, suffice it to say, your life was altered and the pace was slower.

I think for many of us, it was a hard adjustment. At first it almost seemed “fun.” Getting to be at home more felt like school getting cancelled. But once the initial feeling faded, I think it started getting hard for many of us. It made us face some of our internal fears. For some of us, struggles that we’d previously been able to avoid through busyness, we now had to deal with.

And 2020 just kept going, on and on. The death of George Floyd caused societal unrest. We all felt the weight of these things. But now, as 2020 is starting to come to a close, I want to make one bold statement.

We did receive 20/20 vision. We do see clearer now. In more ways than one. God is still restoring our vision and I expect that He will continue to do so over the next few months, and of course the rest of our lives. But as we begin to live our lives again, I think that we will have way more appreciation for things than we did before.

Things like friendships, church, jobs, restaurants. These are all special things. And I think the fact that we lost them for a while, we will have new eyes to “see things clearly.” Life is a blessing. And in many ways life was stolen from us in 2020. But as God restores to us the simple joys of life, we will be that much more grateful for it all.

And even more than that, I think one of the greatest lessons of 2020 has been to appreciate the people around us. Even though it can be hard to have relationships with people, it’s what makes life special. Just being together with people is life’s greatest blessing.

2020 was certainly not what we expected, but the end result was still what we needed. The ability to see life for what it is: a gift.