I Love Snow!

I love snow.  I love how it gently falls from the sky, covering everything in a pristine white blanket.  Regardless of the time of day it falls, it is usually quiet outside as no one wants to be caught outside in a snow storm.  But what I love most of all is the necessity forced upon us by nature to SLOW DOWN – whether we want to or not.  I experienced that for the first time this week on Sunday evening as I was returning home from a surprise birthday party.  It took me 20 minutes to go 4 miles.  Normally that would have been incredible frustrating and tiresome, but instead I was grateful.  It was more important to get home safely than quickly, and none of us wanted to be the guy who had slid off the road.  In our area, that unexpected snow did not last long as it turned to rain pretty quickly, but low and behold, we were gifted with another fall of snow 36 hours later. 
Some of you may question my use of the word “gifted” in reference to snow.  As adults, we know the terrible inconvenience of snow on the time table of our lives.  Snow needs to be moved out of the way, which costs time and money, in order for us to get on with things.  And if that was not inconvenient enough, then we have to deal with school closings, canceled meetings and missed appointments, all due to the weather – a seemingly poor excuse.
Mother Nature always has her way and we humans have little choice but to deal with the consequences.  But we do have the choice of how we deal with it.  We can give into the frustration and be angry at something we can’t change, or we can actually enjoy, even with childlike delight, the need to SLOW DOWN and focus on what is truly important.
I am thankful that we had this small snow storm at this point on our Advent Adventure. While we may not have used the unexpected interruption of our regularly over-scheduled lives to reflect or pray, it did remind us that such events happen, and when they do, maybe we can make better use of our time to enjoy rather than wallow.  We can remember that God interrupted human events in a most radical way when God chose to become incarnate and be born.  The snow will melt, but God’s interruption impacts our lives forever!
I also love the aftermath of storms.  The sky always seems so much bluer after the clouds have emptied out of the sky – even more so with the back drop of the sun brightly reflecting off of white dabbled boughs on barren trees.  It makes my heart glad to know that even in the midst of the worst storms, the best is yet to come. 
This Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent, is known as Gaudete Sunday, or Rejoice Sunday.  It is when we light the pink candle, a signal that we have turned a corner and we are getting really close to the big event.  But we need to enjoy this moment.  In fact, we need to rejoice in it and be glad of all that God does to interrupt our lives and remind us that we are not as much in charge of things as we would like to think, and that is OK.  In fact, it is a blessing to be made to SLOW DOWN and rejoice.
In Christ,

Rev. Valerie+

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