Wednesday, October 18, 2023
The Days of Autumn Redeem Much!
Psalm 140:13
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence.
Luke 6:20
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God….’
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Words of Grace For Today
Well, the meek, who will inherit the earth, have taken a good look at it and said, ‘no thanks!’
So the poor, who have the Kingdom of God, have taken a good look at what they have, and have said, ‘If this is it, what’s it worth anyway? How about some clean air and water, nutritious food, enough clothing and sufficient shelter, meaningful work and love? Then throw in some food security, and real security, and peace, and justice, and equity!’
Well, some of the poor, anyway, and by far not most of them.
Many more have given God thanks! Thanks for every little thing that makes for life and love and joy and hope.
It’s not that the rich have more and so they always give more thanks, nor that the poor have so little so we either have nothing to be thankful for, or that we are thankful for even the smallest of things good.
But having been on the wealthy side, and now on the poor side of life, I can tell you that being poor has taught me to say thanks to God for more and more of the things that I used to take for granted.
I guess knowing how to and actually giving God thanks makes the Kingdom of God more visible.
So here it is: the Kingdom of God, in this blessed hermitage beside a lake, with the hard cold of winter coming, after the wildfires, smoke, heat and bugs of summer. Autumn is a lovely time, with many fewer bugs, no more wild parties or crazy campers next door, cool temperatures for working hard in, and plenty of dead wood to collect to feed the wood stove so that the cold hard winter days are still warm inside the insulated tarps.
If, out of 365, 60 or more days are like today, then I see things are real good.
If there is a balance in life at all, then these days of autumn convince me that the balance has tipped in my favour, if just every so slightly.
But I’ll take what I get, with thanks, love, joy and hope … hope that life will continue as well far into the future.
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Answer 10
The map of North America of the Wildfire Smoke that has taken our breath away this past summer … and it’s all clear across Canada, with a few spots in of light smoke west, south, and south east across the US. Only a few areas are bad enough to be noticed. None are more intense than the light blue.