Our Watchkeepers     08/25/21

Cedar Pass Campground, Interior, South Dakota

As with yesterday and for the next few days, I’m going to paraphrase what’s going on, as the relationship between Jacob and Laban continues to deteriorate, and I’ll include a few verses.  So now we come to this curious deal Jacob makes with Laban.  Rather than ask for wages, Jacob wants stock.  So he tells Laban, “Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat.  They will be my wages. . . . any goat in my possession that is not . .  will be considered stolen.” (Gen 30:31-33)  And Laban agrees.  But evil man that Laban is, he acts immediately ‘that same day’ (verse 35) and has his sons remove all the ‘colored’ livestock from the herds and taken three days away.  This act gives proof that Laban is not only an idol worshiper (see yesterday’s post), but also a liar, manipulator, and thief.  To what lengths are we prepared to go to get our way? 

Shortly after we woke up this morning, we had the privilege to watch a thunderstorm graze our bow!  There was a rainbow in the dark skies, then it turned into a double rainbow, and just as I was moving across the street to get a picture of the entire bow, a great and brilliant lightning strike sent me scurrying back inside.  I don’t remember a thunder clap, but the sky lit up like a strobe aimed a few feet in front of your eyes!  And then Blaine wouldn’t let me go back outside again.  ☹  I knew he was right, but still . . . . staying inside really put a damper on what I could see.  We absolutely love storm-watching!  In fact, tornado chasing is on my bucket list!  Maybe someday.  Our oldest grandson’s current career aspiration is to become a storm chaser.  He’s promised to take me along sometime.  😊

So how crazy is it, that we’ve been in 100⁰ temperatures so long that now, 80⁰ feels cold?  That was me today!

We finally made it to the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center, along with a parking lot full of other people. 

It’s not a large place, but they have a 28-minute movie, and a few displays.  It was a pretty sobering place.  Really makes you feel unsettled.  How quickly we’ve forgotten the 30-year Cold War.  Until today, we thought all the missiles had been decommissioned, but there are still 400 active sites in the United States, just none in South Dakota. 

This is not the total number in warheads in our arsenal.  That number is much higher.  The 400 are just the ones on land in the US.  The others are on planes with the Air Force, and submarines with the Navy.  See the partial article from armscontrolcenter.org for a bit more information: 

The nuclear age began on July 16, 1945, when the United States tested the first atomic bomb. Less than a month later, the United States would become the only nation to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At its peak, the United States had more than 31,000 nuclear weapons in its stockpile. Through various arms control agreements and unilateral reductions, the United States has a total inventory of around 5,550 nuclear warheads. These weapons are deployed on air, sea, and land platforms in what is referred to as “The Triad.”

Since the end of the Cold War, each U.S. President has directed their administration to create a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) outlining the role of U.S. nuclear weapons. President Trump’s NPR states that America’s nuclear forces are “directed toward deterring aggression and preserving peace.” While some of the content in the 2018 NPR is similar to past reviews — including the policy of ambiguity over when the United States would use nuclear weapons — there is a renewed emphasis on the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national security strategy, and a call for “supplemental capabilities” in the form of new low-yield weapons.

They had a list of the total nuclear arsenals in the world:  US – 4,760, Russia -4,300, United Kingdom – 225, France – 300, China – 250, Israel – 80, India – 110, Pakistan – 120, North Korea – 10

Here are the pictures we took. 

Being here caused us to think about what goes on behind the scenes that we don’t give any thought to.  These days, we tend to thank those who serve our country, but do we thank those who continually watch over us?  We should all be grateful for them, as well as pray for them.

So glad God is the One ultimately in control.

On the way back home, we made some random stops along the side of the road to explore a few canyons.  We didn’t really accomplish much except crawl around on the rocks in the heat, but it was fun.  And Blaine uncovered a couple of fossils!  A bone of some kind, and a scalloped edge of a small shell.  Cool beans, Blaine!

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Tomorrow we move to the east side of South Dakota.