It’s so hot and dry that the deer are looking for water. The small creeks have dried up and what was once swampy woodlands are caked hard. What do the deer do in this weather? They can’t just turn a spigot to get a glass of water. The birds, too, are looking for water. They’re drinking the birdbaths empty.
And the plants as well almost seem to cry for relief from the burning sun and the heat. This second major heat wave is supposed to break by Thursday with rain – at least that’s what’s predicted. Just like the other animals and plants, we can survive longer without food than without water.
Waiting for cooler weather to waft over us is a bit like waiting for the Spirit of God. It takes patience even as we chafe in the heat. We humans are impatient, however. It’s difficult to find respite when we are impatient, whether we anxiously search for respite from the heat or for the Spirit of God.
Prayer for the Day
Seeking your Presence in the still heat of the early morning,
We cry to you, O God, to be with us this day;
Endeavoring to find you where we want you to be, O Lord,
We are frustrated for you come to us in unlikely places.
Create in us, you who made the sun and the stars,
Open hearts to find you where we least expect you.
In the name of him who opens us to you,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
That lemon drop is bearing down,
So hot it wilts my artificial flowers.
Richard L. Ratiff, American poet
If you couldn’t sense heat, you’d not be alive. And if that heat never grew uncomfortable you would never move. And if you were stagnant – unchallenged by unpredictable flares – you would never grow capable of shielding yourself through harsher flames.
Richelle E. Goodrich, American author and poet
You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams
Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun,
You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
Psalm 74: 15-17