Church Cancelled Owing To Act of God
Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 11:29AM | by Otter 
The ground, softened by rain, gives up a tall oak.
Somebody once said that fun is danger in the absence of death.
When I was growing up, tropical storms and heavy rains were a part of life, and more often an element of interest to what could be long, dull late summer days before the weather turned cool, before football started, when school was beginning to exercise its interminable dullness.
People my age still remember the May 3rd Flood of 1978: schools were cancelled, streets were impassable, and I had the adventure of walking through water that was, for me at the time, hip deep. It was more a holiday for those of us who didn't have the headaches of living our life as adults.
But even now, I find that in the absence of death (or significant property damage) I enjoy the way that nature tweaks our cheek.
Tropical Storm Lee has packed a wet wallop on New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast.
The psalms say:
Had not the LORD been with us, let Israel say, Had not the LORD been with us, when people rose against us, they would have swallowed us alive, for their fury blazed against us. The waters would have engulfed us, the torrent overwhelmed us; seething waters would have drowned us. Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us to be torn by their fangs. We escaped with our lives like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare was broken and we escaped. Our help is the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:1-8)
Nevertheless, churches in New Orleans have canceled services owing to this act of God. Schools are thoughtfully watching forecasts for the post-Labor Day week, and the city is asking people not to travel.
Around the corner from my house, a tall oak came up by the roots in the saturated soil. Swollen creeks and wet ground make flash flooding increasingly likely. Several more days of rain are expected, and we gently slip from the stage of "fun," the extended wet holiday filled with leisure-reading and conversation, into the grim adult world of worry.
My son and his cousins are playing cards without any anxiety.
Worry is for those of us who have sinned by growing up.
Reader Comments (1)
"Worry is for those of us who have sinned by growing up."
Endorse.