Anyone who has read the books of Mark Twain is caught in his descriptions of the “mighty Mississippi.” Beginning as a trickle from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, if first is a stream that one can wade and then cascades into a river 2,348 miles long, joining the Ohio below the bottom point of Illinois and becomes a mighty flowing stream. At least it did in the past, but climate change has even affected the Mississippi.
All the way from Cairo, Illinois, into Missouri, barges are parked because they cannot float in such low water. Pleasure boats are stranded in the mud. The Mississippi has sunk to its lowest level in over a decade. Agricultural and manufacturing products have traditionally used the Mississippi to bring items to New Orleans for shipping.
And, below New Orleans, the sea rise is pushing into the Delta, pushing the fresh water back. But we just keep pumping oil in the Gulf. Our insatiable thirst for fossil fuels is coming home to roost.
Prayer for the Day
Fearful, but perhaps not fearful enough, we look about and wonder,
As the world around us, near and far, seems to be changing;
Frustrated that our previous lifestyle must be re-evaluated,
We come to you, O God, looking for ways to change our future.
Awaken us so we make those who have power to respond
To the world we are destroying with our profligacy.
In the name of the One who is our source of strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
When we get to worrying about the river, we always look north to Kentucky, where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers come together.
- Will Maples, agricultural economist at Mississippi State University
It reigns alone. Old Nile would ne'er bedew/ The lands it blesses with its fertile tide.
Even sacred Ganges, joined with Egypt's flood
Would shrink beside this wonder of the West!
- Sara Josepha Hale, poet, from The Mississippi River (1788-1879)
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
For you have forsaken the ways of your people, O house of Jacob.
Indeed they are full of diviners from the east and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures.
Isaiah 2: 5-7