Sunday, October 18, 2020
October is generally a month when we plan ahead. Although sunny days can deceive us, the cool nights are a sign of what is coming. The mums in the stores tell us it’s time to move the really tender plants inside. Although there’s no frost in the 10-day forecast, it can come down from the north more quickly than we can imagine.
Restaurant owners are moving many of their diners indoors but some of the more cautious ones are looking at ways to provide heat outdoors. Older buildings are not retrofitted with the ventilation systems to keep the virus in the air at bay.
We wonder, what will happen this fall and winter? Numbers of infected persons and hospitalizations are up, not just in New Jersey, but in other states as well. Let us continue to care for each other as we care for ourselves. It will be the way we survive the coming fall and winter and move into the spring.
Prayer for the Day
Fill our fearful hearts with a transforming faith,
And bring us your presence through loving one another.
Free us from the old fears that dampen our spirits,
And teach us new ways to be in community with each other
So we walk in your ways of justice and righteousness;
Sharing the vision of a better world for all.
We ask this in the name of him who opens us to you,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian (1914–2004)
It is the absence of facts that frighten people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.
Hilary Mantel, British novelist
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights,
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
Psalm 36: 7-9