Wednesday, September 23, 2020
It only seemed such a short time ago when the front page of The New York Times had nothing more than names, and the names spilled over onto more pages—we were crossing the 100,000 mark. And now that number has doubled. And if we just consider that each person who has died has left family and friends––the grief is overwhelming.
How do we measure the loss of so many? So many who had each in his or her own way, given something of beauty, of love, or of making this world a better place?
We cannot, of course, for human beings are not quantifiable units. Where is our Jeremiah looking out across a devastated city to cry out? “How lonely sits the city that once was full of people . . . she weeps bitterly in the night . . . .” The number is beyond our comprehension: 200,000.
Prayer for the Day
We have cried so much, O Lord, that our eyes are dry,
We have shouted so loud, O God, that our throats are parched,
And yet our tears and muffled sobs provide no comfort,
For death shows no mercy to any of us.
Be with us, Holy One, as we struggle to live beyond
The day that has brought so much sorrow.
In the name of him who is with us even in sorrow
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
They say time heals all wounds but that assumes the source of the grief is finite.
Cassandra Clare, writer
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
C.S. Lewis, British writer (1898–1963)
I am poured out like water, and my bones are all out of joint;
My heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
You lay me in the dust of death.
Psalm 22:14–15.