For some reason, when I was a little girl, I loved snow. Growing up in Cleveland, winters were brutal. Our family lived on the border of the snowbelt. There were times when we would receive 4 inches more than my aunt who lived less than 2 miles away. It wasn’t the snowfall I remembered as much as the snow drifts that usually happened. My backyard was very long, more than 100 feet in all. Lots of raw material for numerous snowmen. However, my sister and I had other ideas. Blankets of snow meant snow angels all over the yard.
And although it’s a little early, there is something perfect about a white Christmas. For those of us who live in snow country, I don’t need to describe the beautiful splendor that each Christmas snowfall is. Either because there was a Christmas in my young life that didn’t have snow, or the Fall season was extremely warm one year, I remember a child’s prayer to the Lord.
Like all child prayers, it was simple. I asked God if He could make it snow before my birthday. My child heart must’ve conveyed that I wanted this to happen annually, instead of the year I asked God for snow. That prayer has been answered nearly every year of my life. Living in Ohio, Iowa, and Michigan, that is really no surprise. It usually snows in late October or early November. What makes the snowfall promise special is that while I lived in Memphis, twice there was a trace of snow before my birthday.
Wow! God has a way of affirming His presence in our lives. Sunday morning when I looked outside, I saw the first flakes of this season falling. They weren’t the slow meandering flakes of a snow globe. It was definitely a flurry. After I started raking leaves, the flurry turned into a blizzard, almost a whiteout with the way the wind was blowing. And I was reminded of the child’s prayer I offered to our Lord.
God is with us in ways too numerous to count. Our Lord sometimes reminds us of how He is moving and shaping our lives in momentous ways. Or God speaks to us softly and subtly, in the form of snow falling to bring childlike joy to us who are grown. We are at a pivotal time in our nation and our denomination. God is with us on this journey. He is moving and shaping our lives in momentous ways. And God is also speaking with us softly and subtly. He is showing us in little ways that we are in His loving embrace, in the midst of all that is unfolding in our lives. May we continue to receive God’s blessings. And Amen.