So many people right now—and for good reason—are celebrating the end of 2020, hoping that with the turn of the calendar, all the pain and struggle, grief and upset we’ve experienced this year will be wiped away. Although we, like you, have struggled with the challenges this year brought, we also want to take a moment and say “thank you” to 2020 for giving us gifts that are unique to our time and circumstance.

#1   Thank you for the precious moments of connection we experienced. In normal, hectic, crowded life, it is so easy to rush past one another in mindless ways as we scurry on toward our appointments and events and the next exciting thing. With so many events and traditions on pause this season, it becomes a tender and even sacred moment when we have a chance to look one another in the eye, to hear a voice, to share a story. Perhaps the dial of our expectations has been turned down and we’ll appreciate the tiny, simple moments we have with one another in new ways. Human connection is truly healing—we are made to be together—and perhaps as the new year begins to dawn, we’ll recognize and celebrate that in a new way.

#2   Thank you for the kind hearts who came alongside us in times of trouble. It is hard to fathom the enormity of the grief that is wrapped around our world right now. With thousands dying each day in our country alone, the grief for family members is staggering and unthinkable. We can give thanks that for each broken heart, there are those drawn close to care, to help, to be a witness to the value of the life lost and remembered. Through our shared love and our shared heartache, we all have a part in the healing. The kindness continues to flow, no matter how dark things sometimes seem. Thank you, 2020, for showing us that in real time.

#3   Thank you for showing us our own resilience, our strength, our ability to adapt in trying times. If someone had said to us a year ago that 2020 would turn out the way it has, few of us would have believed it was possible. Looking back, all our adjustments, our resilience, our ability to find hope and connection—looking for the good–as we trudge through this fearful valley is nothing short of remarkable. We are made of strong stuff. And that stuff is mostly good and caring and kind. Look how far we’ve come together. That’s not a bad reminder at the end of an exhausting year.

#4   Thank you for reminding us what is most important. May we hold on to what we have learned this year, lessons that for some of us came with a high emotional cost. When the virus began to make our world smaller and we had to let go for a time of our favorite activities, hoped-for plans, and carefree lifestyles, life reduced itself to the bare essentials: get up, care for yourself and your beloveds, do what work you can, rest. And then get up and do it all over again. As the activity of our days clarified, we were more aware of emotions—fear, uncertainty, dread, and perhaps a growing faith, comfort, and even gratitude. May we carry with us a new understanding that our inner lives need as much or more nurturance as our outer lives. It is a lesson we might easily forget when life gets fun again—and it is a jewel worth keeping.

#5   Thank you for giving us the opportunity to care. This year we had the chance to be someone else’s shoulder, to offer help where we could, and to care about the well-being and comfort of those outside our small circle of friends and family. Through all the trials and snares of 2020, one of the best gifts this year has given us is the opportunity to be the balm and comfort—God with skin on—for someone else. No matter how we help—by donating to food banks or praying for someone’s healing or holding a person as they cry—giving from our fullness, sharing kindness for no reward, truly shows us the best of who we are, the best we’re meant to be.

So thank you, 2020, for all the good things you brought. And we hope you’ll take all the bad with you as you leave. We take our first steps into 2021 as older, wiser, and hopefully kinder people. And may the whole world be better for it.