2004 wants to go out with a bang, it seems.

Catastrophic destruction in Asia with the earthquake-spawned tsunamis, massive loss of life, fear, anguish, loss -- I watch it all on CNN and cannot begin to comprehend the enormity of it. They'll need donations of money for weeks and months and years to come, so I'm thankful for organizations like Church World Service, through which the United Church of Christ often works, which partner with local grassroots organizations to help with rebuilding long after the organizations that mobilize for immediate assistance have pulled out. Any offerings you make through your churches can be sent to the Wisconsin Conference, where they will be forwarded on to Church World Service.

The war in Iraq continues to bring destruction, suffering, and death on every side. As always, we pray and work for peace.

It's been a crazy year in so many ways. As we bid farewell to 2004, let us look forward in hope to the promise hidden in days yet to come. I love these lines from Emily Dickinson on the subject of Hope:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.