Unreported News

 January 7, 2021

We’ve longed for the media to give us something other than its endless stream of COVID bad news, and yesterday, we finally got our wish, although perhaps not quite the way we had hoped. For those obsessed with all things political, here’s some news you might have missed.

A young man and woman are quietly and joyfully planning their wedding. Hopes and dreams are not the sole provenance of the political crowd. This couple is trying to juggle what they can afford with what governmental limitations may be imposed six months from now upon their joyful celebration, but today, they are happy.

A husband and wife are reunited after an estrangement that lasted for over a year. They both worked on it, and are now experiencing a depth of love they hadn’t dreamed of before. Their children are doubly blessed having them together without the former tension that plagued their home.

The winter solstice has passed; days are slowly getting longer—a faint harbinger of warmer days, snowbells pushing up to the light, and the return of the geese. Our fire still warms our bodies, while our love warms our hearts. We read tonight in peace and gratitude.

The coffee on the table by my side is hot and strong; somewhere, a coffee grower eats his supper because of that cup. He worked, sold his product to a supplier who also eats tonight, as does the roaster, the person who designed and produced the bag in which it was put. A trucker, warehouse worker, stock boy, and checkout clerk are also part of the blessing of that cup.

A birthday is being celebrated today. For some, it is their very first; they took their first breath. A life full of possibility, challenge, joy, and danger awaits them. Someone else blew out seventy, eighty, or even ninety candles, perhaps with help, but remembering birthdays past, joys and sorrows, the mystery of life.

Someone whose life hung by a thread, someone at the end of their rope, seeing nothing for which to hope, found that hope as another shared the Gospel with him. The door to eternal life swung wide open, and she walked—no—danced through, the burden and guilt of sin lifted from sagging shoulders that now stand straight and erect.

Today brought much more than the media would report. There’s no profit in telling the rest of the story, but it’s there. I am thankful tonight for the stories that never make the headlines, but make the front page of someone’s life tonight.