Goodbye 2020, but there’s a lot to be Grateful For.

Like it or not—it’s the last day of 2020! Like WOW! 2020 that seemed to drag on forever, 2020 that seemed as though it would never end. Isn’t it (almost) surprising that this time tomorrow, we would have entered a new year? There’s truly a lot to be grateful for.

Like my dad would always say, a grateful heart is a thoughtful heart (or was it the other way round?) Anyways, you get the point—you won’t truly be grateful until you can look back; look upon the memories of the past, look upon the circumstances and the opportunities, upon the deliverance and the growth, only then can you truly be grateful.

For me, the gift of life is at the topmost of the list. Amean, a dead person cannot think, rather can a dead person write. If you’ve seen “A million ways to die in the West”, you’d know that there’s supposed to be a movie titled, “A million ways to die in 2020”.

Protection from the Deadly and Evasive Coronavirus.

Like seriously, this virus alone should be more than “one million”. At least you know that people that are infected with COVID do not write it on their foreheads (that they’re infected). Even with all the facemasks and the hand-hygiene (I must have washed my hands about 10,000 times this year) and the taking of baths, people that were infected were still infected.

Truly, you know you could have contacted it from anywhere; the person you sat with on the bus (yeah, that one who was either coughing or sneezing every minute), the people you bumped into while shopping for things in the market, even the friends you handshake who had probably had contact with a hundred different people. It’s only by His mercies that we were not consumed.

Other Calamities Nko?

As I said, coronavirus was not the only killer in town this year. Only last week, I know a woman who died of Jaundice. (Like really? Jaundice). Not to talk of countless other infections that killed people. And guess what, you are not one of them!

And what do we say about the dangerous #ENDSARS that threatened the life, property, peace and safety of this nation. Do you know the number of people that died just from stray bullets alone? Only that is worth being grateful for.

I can still feel the trauma and despair in the eyes and expressions of that mother who cried for her only male child who was in the final year in University, after he was killed during a protest. Can you remember how your mental well-being was threatened? I know people who had to go offline for days because they couldn’t handle it. But still, here you are.

Have a Heart of Gratitude.

If I want to go on and on and on, we may not eventually leave here (And I don’t mean that as a cliché). Truly, there’s a lot to be grateful for this year that I’ve not even mentioned. I challenge you on this last day, to go down memory lane, from the beginning of the year, even until now. God’s faithfulness was ever real and constant.

Today, don’t ask for anything—just have a heart of gratitude!

Recommended: Lessons from 2020.