Monday, February 8, 2021

After all this snow, the sun is peeking through the clouds but it’s so cold (11 where I am) that the snow on the trees makes for photos one normally sees out of the north country. It seems like a strange time to think about lighthouses which we do not normally consider this time of year. 

The East Point Lighthouse in Heilersville, on the mouth of the mouth of the Maurice River which flows into Delaware Bay is being shuttered due to erosion from rising seas.  Since 1849 it has served boaters and crabbers but is now the center of dispute between the State DEP which owns it and the historical society which managed it.

Further to the north the American Littoral Society is building breakwaters at the other end of the shallow river mouth. The battle to save the lighthouse and the land around it is but one result of the denigration of God’s creation. Let’s pray that we are able to care for the earth summer and winter.

Prayer for the Day

The sun comes creeping over the horizon and we welcome it,

   Was it this cold, dear God, when you first brought the universe into being?

We shiver, struggling to find the warmth of your love around us,

   But you, O Lord, can bring our care for your world into fruition.

Thaw the ice we have built up around ourselves and hat our hearts

   So we envelope the earth with the passion of your creation.

In the name of him who walked on the earth,

   Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Thoughts for the Day

Essentially, all life depends on the soil … There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together

                        Charles Kellogg, campaigner for the redwoods (1868-1949)

When you have destroyed the soil, you have destroyed life.

                        Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist (1940-2011)

Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps,

   Fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling God’s command!

Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!

   Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and fling birds!

                        Psalm 148: 7-10

Photos of the East Point Lighthouse: