It’s been such a topsy-turvy year. Beyond being sad about some events during the year, we have also had events and things to be grateful for. The vaccine rollouts certainly cut the illness and death rate from the virus that still rules our lives. Masked and vaccinated, most of us have been able to resume our new normal lives.
Most churches resumed worship although many still offer an online option. As the new variants of the virus continue to spread, however, many larger gatherings have been cancelled. So here we have a mixed bag.
Testing has been ramped up, many people concerned that they may have somehow been infected in one way or another. Hopefully, increased testing will lead to increased vaccination rates although vaccination continues to be a polarizing issue. We have been vaccinated against smallpox, whooping cough, pertussis, tetanus, and polio. It’s amazing that these vaccines have become so political.
Prayer for the Day
God of all blessings, we are thirsty for you,
Needing rivers in the deserts of our hearts,
We search for your grace to break forth as water from a spring
Beseeching for tenderness of heart and strength of soul.
Enlighten us as we come to the closing of this year,
Expanding our horizons in the year to come,
In the name of the One who gives us hope,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.
- Howard Thurman, theologian, civil rights leader (1899-1981)
There’s a point where you go with what you’ve got. Or you don’t go.
- Joan Didion, American writer (1934-2021)
May God grant me to speak with judgment,
And to have thoughts worthy of what I have received,
For God is the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise.
For both we and our words are in God’s hand,
As are all understanding and skill in crafts.
For it is God who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,
To know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;
The beginning and end and middle of times.
Wisdom of Solomon 7: 15-18