Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.

• Isaiah 40:3

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

• Malachi 3:1

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

• Luke 1:76 (part of Zechariah’s Song upon the birth of his son, John)

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

• Matthew 3:1-3

We had a very cold winter storm a couple of days before Christmas, nasty winter storm Elliott.  Odd that it may not “officially” be considered a white Christmas in that nothing was falling on Christmas and the rules say it must be an inch, but a bombogenesis leading to horrific winds that made a nearly continuous whistle around our house and the ground for miles around being white…  That counts!  And who made the rule maker in charge of that rule anyway!?!?!  A White Christmas is something of the heart, not a rule book.

A bombogenesis should have parameters.  At the center of the storm, the low pressure must drop 24 mbars within 24 hours.  That was accomplished, but the area where we live was well from the center of the storm.  The photo was taken two and a half days after the storm hit our area.  I could have taken a photo of a white sheet and claimed that it was the same picture the day of the storm.  The visibility ranged from a few hundred yards to not being able to see the edge of our deck.  I did not take a photo that day.  I was afraid my cellphone or camera would freeze to the glass door.

But all joking aside, from Thursday through Saturday, the channel devoted to broadcasting the weather told people to not leave their house.  They then reported all the nasty wrecks because people had to do their Christmas shopping.

The channel then lamented that these people who were in these wrecks on the highway did not have a cold weather survival kit.

I would now like to make an open statement to said television channel.  People have claimed that the late George Carlin made this statement. “The average person in America is stupid.  That means that half the people that you know are even stupider.”  I doubt George Carlin would have said “stupider” but I have heard him attributed to the statement.

I will not give validity to the statement either, but when it comes to preparedness, I am thinking that the statement might be an understatement.  Hardly anyone prepares.  If they prepare, they prepare a list of people to blame when bad things happen.  But sorry, it is not all your parent’s fault that you are not prepared, or your teachers, or your environment, etc.  But the average person is not going to check the weather before leaving the house, not even for a long trip.  Therefore, all of your week-long announcements about how bad it was going to be was only heard by two groups of people: those who were prepared for any storm already and old people that were never going to leave the house in the first place.  It seems that your meteorologists have difficulty understanding logic.  If you do not prepare and you never watch the weather report, you do not know how to prepare for such a storm.  For that person to be true to their nature, they will not prepare for the Christmas Holiday.  It comes upon them with a shocking surprise around December23 or 24.  I for one can tell you when Christmas will be ten years from now.  Pick a year!!  It will be between 24 and 26 December.  But these folks are shocked when December 23 or 24 is upon them, and they have not bought the first present.  They do not prepare and they obviously never look at the calendar … no, they probably do not have a calendar as my wife and I do on the side of the refrigerator, actually two since we already have 2023 doctor appointments scheduled.

These unprepared people have had warnings!!!  They’ve been getting Christmas cards from their prepared friends for over a month.  But true to their nature, they do not heed such warnings.  If they bump into me anywhere from mid-October to the week before Thanksgiving in November, they might find me picking up something for someone for Christmas.  I used to only Christmas shop in November, but when in the Army in Germany, the PX had their toy section only during the month of October.  I developed the habit, and I like how the stores are less crowded then.

No, when storms approach, your pleas to get prepared fall on deaf ears.  The only ones watching are those who already know, and the aforementioned old people who forgot to charge the batteries on their hearing aids.

But please, give us some comforting music instead of providing more commercials when you cut out half the wasted warnings from your broadcast.

Sincerely Yours,

Hat Rackley

But just as we ignore the warnings for a nasty storm.  I can hear it now through a woman’s tears after she nearly drowned during Hurricane Harvey, “Nobody told me!”

We are equally oblivious, for the most part, that God does not like sin.  God does not like being ignored.  And He promised to come back and clean house.

Prepare the way of the Lord, or you might be swept away when the Angel armies run through.

God does not wish for any to perish, but only those that turn to God and repent will survive.

God loves you.  He wants to save you.  He sent His Son to die so that you might live.

And He wants you to prepare the way for Christ’s return.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.