Watch!

 August 27, 2020

Power was out for a couple hours tonight. We ate our supper by the light of our antique kerosene lamps, played a few hands of Rummy, and read. The entire village, along with neighboring Cassadaga, was affected. If any of us were to have had even a momentary feeling of inconvenience, footage of the devastation caused in the Louisiana coastal area by Hurricane Laura put a quick end to it. We are blessed indeed. We haven’t had California’s wildfires, nor the devastation by rioting in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and now Kenosha. We get snow, but that’s a few months away, and doesn’t do nearly the damage of either storm or riots. 

No one is guaranteed an easy passage through life. I’ve been reading the diary of a Jewish woman who miraculously survived the Nazi purges of the Warsaw ghetto in 1942-43. Almost overnight, the Jewish population went from prosperity and security to abandonment, arrest, brutality, and extermination. We imagine that destruction always happens elsewhere, but it can strike at any time, anywhere. The words of Jesus come to mind: “Watch, for you don’t know the time of your visitation.” I am grateful tonight for the peace we enjoy at the moment, and pray to be prepared for the day when it may end.