For many years, I celebrated the wonders of nature. The beauty of its flowers, the soft caress of its many breezes in beautiful Maine. I felt especially, in its highways and byways, the healing caress of all that is good in life. I adored the singing of the birds, the laughter of children at play, the deep smiles of young people in love pledging their lives to each other.

Life in Maine meant goodness, kindness, understanding and a deep belief in the ‘morrow. In Maine, one felt all is well with the world. Summer was its proof. If you were blessed with a quiet space somewhere in the state, if you were blessed with the nightly sounds of the loons, all seemed well with the world.

If you had the good fortune to walk on the seashore and gaze as far as one can, wondering what awaits us in the far distance, your inner voice would say to you, be quiet, all is well.

Unfortunately, this summer so many of us are preoccupied with the worries of an uncertain future. If you have been avid readers of the newspaper or close watchers of the news reports, the thought may have crossed your mind, “All’s well is not the motto of our times.”

We could feel the uncertain shadows lurking in every nook and cranny, and we can hear ourselves saying, “Why, God, why has the calmness of yesteryear taken on the aspect of a former dream world no longer present?”

What does our faith teach us? Hopelessness, despair, the end of time?

No. Faith speaks otherwise. Faith cries out to us. There is no final moment. There are moments bathed in light. There are moments bathed in darkness. There are no final moments. One moment leads to another, and what seems to be chaos today has the seeds of order for tomorrow. That is what our faith teaches us.

Some might say we are naively optimistic. It would be a true judgment if I were to say all is well, what happened will be again.

But we don’t say that. We affirm life will continue. What form will it take, we have to wait and see. God opens our doors. He enables us to enter our designated chambers. He doesn’t equip them.

Our faith in ourselves and in the future drives us. As we have been told in Scripture, God did not make the world so that it might be destroyed. In fact, he promised us total destruction will never occur.

Corrections, adjustments, the bringing of balance where it is lacking, that will happen.

Rabbi Harry Sky is a resident of Falmouth. He can be reached at:

rabbi@maine.rr.com