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Some light rain overnight producing a damp early a.m. chill the last few mornings has had this old man turning on the electric heater that sits beside my recliner. The fireplace directly behind it got to be too much heat going up the chimney and I sealed it off a few years back. We have two more of these plug-ins strategically placed in the house, but this is one of those that, besides supplying warmth, gives an illusion of burning logs. Usually Halloween gets here before any serious winter weather arrives, but everywhere you look there are signs …. Omens. Indications that give possible evidence, warning of what is to be. You look in the mirror and realize this is not the same fellow who once stared back at me. A couple of times up and down the basketball court let you know that it’s no longer a game your lungs can handle. The news channel begins to sound like sermons they preached to you forty years ago, chapter and verse taken right out of your Bible. Then again, there is much that can come to you with little warning and often seemingly with no particular reason as to why you and not the other person… I rode with my oldest daughter’s family this morning over to Cincinnati, joining some ten thousand people registered for a 3K Women’s Breast Cancer Walk, starting from a point near the Paul Brown Stadium, crossing over to Kentucky and back via two different bridges. My own attire was without any announcement. My mind, alone, recalled a friend taken by this disease, leaving five children without their mother. Around me, though, was a sea of pink shirts all adorned with such slogans as “Hope for Harriet” or “Saving second base for Mary”, others simply proclaiming “Aunt Lois” or “Mom” with dates inscribed beneath. Squads of cheerleaders encouraged us along the entire route, from uniformed little diddles waving pompoms to a motorcycle group near the end revving their engines and honking. Hearts were joined. It was an emotional event… Some, like the one man in our Bible study Wednesday evening, tell it as if, as believers, we are guaranteed deliverance from all harm. When David’s infant son was sick, the warrior king fasted and prayed, declaring “Who can tell whether God be gracious to me?” Even so I see it. He who knows all things goes with us through all things, that in such connection we might find strength for whatever awaits us in the next step. It works for me......