Cousin Rufus: 2020 Eyesight

Dear Cousin Cletus,

Can you believe Christmas is the end of next week? This ol’ man is enjoyin’ the lights and decorations ‘round the holler.

Did you ever think we’d be around to see 2020? An’ guess mebbe we’ve lived long enough to learn a few thangs in our old age. When this year started, folks made jokes about 2020 bein’ a year of good sight. Well, ah guess we all is seeing thangs a bit diff’rent than we did this time last year.

Folks at the gen’ral store is talkin’ about people in the big city bein’ disappointed. They has to be quarantined. Some of them lost their jobs. The kids cain’t go to school in person no more. So, they got reasons to be disappointed and a little sad.

But then ah got to thinkin’ thet’s the same way Mary and Joseph musta felt when baby Jesus was born. Mary prob'ly was disappointed she didn’t get to have a nice weddin’ like they planned. They prob’ly had a quiet one with just the family.

And how wuz she ‘posed to break the news about expectin’ a baby before she wuz married-- and Joseph wasn’t the daddy? Try explainin’ thet to people like her parents! Folks back then knew you wuz ‘posed to git married first, then have a baby. It looked purty bad for little Mary.

And then, to top it off, when she wuz about ready to deliver, the gov’ment made a rule they had to travel a long ways to pay their taxes in person! Ah remember when mah dear Matilda wuz getting’ ready to have our son. She shore didn’t feel like gettin’ on the back of some donkey an’ takin’ a long trip!

You’d think thet would be enough disappointment to knock Mary and Joseph off they feet for a long while. But no, they wuz more. When they got to Bethlehem, they couldn’t find no place to spend the night. A smelly ol’ stable—probably a cave or crude shelter—became the place the Son of God came into the world as a baby. Surrounded by smelly animals. All alone in a city full o’ strangers.

So Mary and Joseph had their own year o’ hard times, just like folks in 2020. But the good Lord saw ‘em through, just like He’s gonna do fer folks in our day. ‘Member what ol’ Schoolmaster Jones used to tell us? “Adversity builds character.” Ah think we see thangs a lot diff’rent than we did a year ago. So, ah guess 2020 wuz a year of great sight fer us after all.

We'll still celebrate the comin' of the One Christmas is all about, only this year folks changed the way they look at life. They--all of us-- found out we could live a lot diff'rent than we thought possible. We got new eyesight, didn't we?

Your cuz,

Rufus

How about you? Are you seeing anything differently than you did a year ago? Feel free to comment below.