The weather forecaster predicts rain so I carry an umbrella, but instead of rain, there’s scorching sunny heat. Oh well, it’s just July in Jersey and probably all the way up into New England. We hear so much about climate change and we know the summers are hotter, more unpredictable, and we wonder what kind of world we will leave our children.
It’s rainy here, sometimes too much rain, but people in the West probably wish they had some of the rain. One scientist said we should think of climate as our personality and the weather as our mood. Personality develops and grows, hopefully better than what we expect from the climate, but our mood is more changeable, like the weather.
The authors of the Psalms looked at the climate and weather they experienced and sang of their gratitude to God for both rain and sun, and spoke of their emotions and fears using the language of their climate and landscape. Their words speak to us as we struggle with changes our lives. Consider how they bring us closer to God.
Prayer for the Day
Gazing we look into the sky on warm summer nights,
We are overwhelmed by stars of your creation, O Lord;
Seeing the clouds move across the moon’s light,
We fell the breeze that accompanies changing weather.
Steady our souls, O God, as only you can do,
Bringing us, like the Psalmists, to a deeper faith in you.
In the name of the One who increases our faith,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.
Benjamin Alire Saenz, American writer
I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.
Anne Morrow Lindberg, from A Gift From the Sea (1906-2001)
I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds,
I meditate on the works of your hands.
I stretch out my hand to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 143: 5-6