Have you ever listened to a baby who is learning to speak? It’s incredibly cute. Most of the noises they make aren’t real words but sounds that they think are words. Yet every once in a while they may manage to say something that is actually a word. My middle daughter used to do this. She would say whole ‘sentences’ of complete nonsense and somewhere in the flow of sounds would be two or three actual words that we could understand. It was almost as though she felt like she had a lot to say but didn’t know enough words so filled in the spaces with whatever sound she could make.

Stop! I want to get off

Sometimes life is a little like baby babbling. At times it can feel like a continual stream of random and incoherent nonsense. No rhyme or reason. No discernible purpose. A lot of people seem to feel that 2016 has been a tough and, on occasions, strange year and will be happy to see the end of it. On one hand it’s true, 2016 has been a roller coaster. There is the ongoing death and destruction in Aleppo. The terror war being waged by Isis against anyone who thinks or believes differently than they do. It’s been hard to miss the numerous political battles around the global that have divided nations based on political ideology, specifically in the UK, across Europe and in the United States. Don’t forget that bees have been put on the endangered species list and a number of iconic figures passed away. The list goes on, however, if you only see the ‘babble’ you’re missing the point.

Not all doom and gloom

The key to making sense of all the mess is to look for the ‘real words’. It’s easy to get confused in the tide of all the bad stuff that is happening and to therefore lose sight of hope but in the midst of chaos you need to find the beauty. Some wonderful things happened in 2016 that you might have missed. A Tumblr user called Helthehatter has created a list of good things from the past year including:

  • The child mortality rate is down everywhere and continues to drop
  • The number of tigers, pandas and manatees are increasing around the world
  • Pakistan made steps towards outlawing honour killings
  • Progress has been made in Alzheimer prevention
  • The hole in the Ozone is repairing itself
  • Over 800 Boko Harem hostages were rescued by the Nigerian Army
  • Babies were born (I became an aunty again)
  • People got married (I got a new sister-in-law)
  • You are still here!

The bible tells us that there are things in the world that aren’t right. God knows better than you or I about the chaos and confusion and seemingly overwhelming nonsense that happens each and every day He still, however reminds us to not lose hope. He encourages us to fix our eyes upon Him.