Thought for Today
Exodus 16:21 Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
Psalm32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Luke 12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.
James 1:11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
As much time as I have spent reading the Bible, I never realized that either David, the psalmist, or James, the epistle author, lived in New England! They must have, to understand the scorching heat of summer so well.
When the folks here in New England complain about the heat, my favorite retort is to tell them that it doesn’t count as heat when there are only 2 digits in the temperature. Today, Tewksbury is under an Excessive Heat Warning, “Extreme Heat Warning issued July 2 at 3:06AM EDT until July 4 at 8:00PM EDT by NWS Boston/Norton MA . . . Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values of 100 to 115 degrees expected today and Friday! Heat indices of 95 – 100+ degrees are expected on Saturday.” (www.bing.com)
Irrespective of any discussion of heat indices, dry-bulb versus wet-bulb measurements, global warming and/or its possible causes, triple digit temperatures are hot. Irrespective of dry heat versus humid heat, any temperature with 3 digits is hot, hot, hot!
We no longer have to gather manna each morning for our sustenance. Most of us are not living on farms or growing our own food. We probably don’t even think about the impact on food crops . . . at least until we go to the supermarket.
Our local power supply company is ‘helpful’ enough to inundate my email in-box with warnings and ‘helpful’ suggestions about how I can ensure the power grid does not become overwhelmed. Sadly, I do not see the purpose of having air conditioning if I adjust my thermostat to the temperature of the ambient air outdoors. While the idea of only cooking after dark, daylight saving time would necessitate I only begin to cook my supper some time after about 8:00pm. Attempts to sleep on a full stomach do not bode well for a good night’s rest.
As a Christian, I know that “Genesis 1:14 God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights-- the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night-- and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.”
Similarly, I know that “Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” Somewhere between that great light ruling the day and my breathing the breath of life, there must be a ‘sweet spot’ where the heat from that great light does not sear my lungs when I try to breathe!
I have turned up our thermostat a couple of degrees from our preferred comfort zone. Greta and I do try our best to tend God’s garden, fulfilling our God-given purpose (Genesis 2:15). We do our best to be faithful stewards of God’s garden, to manage and properly use the God-given resources at our disposal. We understand all of this to be part of our effort to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27)
Today, the temperature is the “800-pound gorilla” in the room. Every day God’s children should be conscious of our purpose and responsibility to be stewards of God’s Creation. That Creation, and God’s gift of God’s Son are both representative of God’s boundless, unmerited love and grace.
Stay safe, stay cool, trust God,
Pastor Ray