We’re reading books nonstop.  I’ve opened another 1,000 pc jigsaw puzzle.  Storms are arriving this Sunday afternoon.  This morning we “went” to church at three different places and heard three sermons.  I’ve decided that if enough pastors do this–that is, watch a lot of preachers they would not ordinarily–it’s going to change forever the way many of us preach.  There are few things better at getting us out of our ruts than being exposed to those who do well.

Sunday morning, Bertha made us a peanut butter pie.  It took all morning, in addition to the other things she was doing.  But it’s to die for.

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Sitting on my back deck Sunday morning with my coffee, I was watching the birds flying in to enjoy the seeds and suet cake at my feeders a few feet away.  Cardinals, doves, sparrows, and a chickadee.  And it hit me that we’re almost out of seeds.  The storage bin on the deck has no more supplies for our feathered friends.  And then….

My wife Bertha walked out and said, “Amy (our next door neighbor) called. She’s at Kroger’s.  Do we need anything.”

“See if they have any birdseed.”  Kroger’s seems to have some of everything.  Maybe they’ll have this too.

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A neighbor who had been out of town for a week or two with her elderly mother has returned. She brought to us a huge package of toilet tissue and several rolls of paper towels. Do we have a nice neighbor or what?

A friend who goes to Alcoholics Anonymous tells me that in his large city there are now 40  chapters meeting online each evening.  (Do they call them chapters?)  He added, “A lot of people are learning technology who never thought they would.”

I’m one of them.  Now, I have done this website for nearly 20 years, so I know a couple of things.  On Facebook I can post cartoons and photos and such. But there is so much that is foreign to me.

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It’s not hard to get old.  Just keep breathing and having birthdays, and one day you’ll wake up and wonder where the time went and why everyone is looking at you as if you were ancient.  You have arrived. 

The eightieth is one of the big birthdays of this earthly existence….if you can get one.  I just experienced mine, with no one here to sing to me except my wife.

The backstory to that is that my older son Neil, living in Mobile, AL, had made plans to have a family-type shindig on Saturday and invite in extended family and close friends.  A couple of weeks ago, however, they shut that down.  I completely agreed with the decision.

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We each do what we can.

One thing I have done is take out cartoons from my huge stock (from 50 years of drawing for Christian publications!) and tweaking some of them, then posting on Facebook.  I’ll photograph one, then make a few minor changes on it and photograph that, then post both cartoons with the caption: “There are 4 differences in these drawings. Can you find them?”  People are playing along with this and telling me it’s great fun.  A nice little diversion.

These days, we can use all of that we can get.

I asked Facebook friends to help me come up with the TOP TEN LESSONS FROM THIS PANDEMIC.

I did the first two, and they suggested the rest…

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Praying worldwide prayers…

I don’t know that I have ever prayed for the whole world before.  We read that God so loved the world and we know He did, but to pray for the whole world previously would have felt so general as to be worthless.  Until now.

We know that we are of God and the whole world lies in under the sway of the wicked one (I John 5:19).

In praying for the entire world–as the Coronavirus works its way into every land, every community–let us pray…

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