Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour of reflection.
Across Europe, a troubling pattern has emerged. More than three dozen attacks on Christian churches, symbols, and worshipers occurred in July alone, with Germany and France leading the count. Among the gravest moments, a woman was stabbed as she prayed at a Catholic church in Ireland, and several sanctuaries were desecrated in deeply disturbing ways.
Closer to home, a quieter grief. Pastor Mike Stone of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Georgia, has shared that his daughter has entered hospice care at the family's home, following years of struggle with chronic illness. It is a reminder that suffering does not pause for any title or calling, and that even those who shepherd others must sometimes simply sit with sorrow.
And then, something vast and humbling. Five thousand light-years away, a nebula shaped like a lion drifts in space, its mane woven from cosmic dust, its face centered on a dying star. That a dying star can become something so luminous and strange asks us to reconsider what an ending truly is.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
