“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. But you, God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of decay; the bloodthirsty and deceitful will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you.”
A great verse to start with this Saturday morning as I open my laptop and I'm covered by a wave of news articles touting the woos of the Coronavirus and the doom and despair spreading by the hour. As I wade through the news stories, I can't help but be reminded of the the late Jerry Clower's story "Judgement in the Sky".
Jerry tells the story of a man named Kirk Garner who lived in the community where he grew up. One morning Kirk walks out on the front porch of his house and sees for the first time in his life sky writing. It had been done by a plane 15 minutes or so before Kirk noticed it. Kirk cannot read but he recognizes that the clouds of smoke in the sky form letters and words.
To make a long story short, Kirk starts running in a panic down the road as fast as he can and a neighbor sees him running towards his house so he goes out in the road and bear hugs him to a stop and asks him what is wrong. Kirk tells him "It's judgement day, the Lord has wrote it in the sky!" The neighbor tells Kirk that the word he saw was Pepsi Cola and it was written in the sky by a plane. After much effort he convinces Kirk that it is not Judgement Day.
The next day, Kirk is telling another neighbor of his adventure and at the end of the story he was asked, "Kirk, what were you going to do if it had been judgement day?" Kirk responded: "I guess I would have just run until judgement overtook me."
Jerry tells the story of a man named Kirk Garner who lived in the community where he grew up. One morning Kirk walks out on the front porch of his house and sees for the first time in his life sky writing. It had been done by a plane 15 minutes or so before Kirk noticed it. Kirk cannot read but he recognizes that the clouds of smoke in the sky form letters and words.
To make a long story short, Kirk starts running in a panic down the road as fast as he can and a neighbor sees him running towards his house so he goes out in the road and bear hugs him to a stop and asks him what is wrong. Kirk tells him "It's judgement day, the Lord has wrote it in the sky!" The neighbor tells Kirk that the word he saw was Pepsi Cola and it was written in the sky by a plane. After much effort he convinces Kirk that it is not Judgement Day.
The next day, Kirk is telling another neighbor of his adventure and at the end of the story he was asked, "Kirk, what were you going to do if it had been judgement day?" Kirk responded: "I guess I would have just run until judgement overtook me."
It's been almost two years now and I still cast my cares on the Lord and I thank Him for continuing to sustain my family, my community and me. But unlike Kirk, I will continue to worship the Lord and fear no evil as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death for He is with me and His rod and staff comfort me. Amen
