The Beauty and Blessing of Snow

Some of you may know, I love snow. The older I get the more excited I get about snow, probably because we have not had much measurable snow in Kansas for the last few years! (I know that not everyone agrees with my perspective, and yet hopefully you will be reminded of how much God attends to details!) I wish for (or better said) my dream would be to wake up to find a fluffy white blanket of snow covering the ground, snow that was not predicted but instead arrived by surprise! I would like a blizzard that lasts most of the day or even 2 days. Not just a couple of inches but 10-12 inches, so that you MUST stay home and simply enjoy the day. This would also make it easy on the Superintendent, then there is no question, school needs to be canceled and it is best to stay home. Of course, this would be pure snow with no ice involved, with bright sunshine that would glisten on the snow by late afternoon. Simply a glorious gift of a different kind of unplanned day!

There are many reasons why I love snow. Honestly, it is so much more than just the idea of a “Snow Day,” but instead it is an opportunity to marvel at God’s workmanship! Snow reminds me of God in so many ways – it is beautiful, pure white, gentle, quiet, peaceful. New snow is pristine, a work of art without blemishes, bright, beautiful, made perfectly by God it glistens in the sunlight. To begin with, there are no prints in the snow, just shear art and design as to how it has fallen and drifted with the wind. God’s handiwork! As it falls, there is no imprint of the world, no animal tracks, no tire tracks, no children’s footprints – just God’s workmanship.

Snow is typically silent and reminds me of God’s Gentleness. You can watch the beauty as it falls silently. Each snowflake is uniquely created, and no 2 flakes are the same, simply unique, and special per God’s design and for God’s purpose. Snowflakes remind me of people – each person is uniquely made by our creator God, in His image with a wide variety of characteristics, just like each snowflake that God creates!

As God would have it, there are various kinds of snow – big flakes / little flakes; wet snow/dry powdery snow; sometimes it comes fast or slow. The weather conditions when snow arrives can vary – from calm, windy, cold, or very cold – all designed by God, packaged just the way that He wants to share it with us! Just the way He decided to make it to fulfill His greater plan!

Snow is often a “rare” Gift of God – the best kind is when it is much more than was predicted and it catches us by surprise. A snow day is a Gift of time that forces us to stop and enjoy the day. Enjoy the gift of unexpected time at home, with family, with God, with different and unplanned expectations. Enjoy the moment and see what God has for you in

that day! Not your plan, but His Plan! Our view of snow depends on our perspective and how we see it. Each of us can choose to enjoy it or grumble about it! We get to choose our perspective!

I am sure that you wonder why I am focusing on snow… it is after spring break… we are now officially in the season of Spring. The days are getting warmer, and the flowers are beginning to break through the ground for a fresh start, a new birth, a new season of beauty just the way God designed it! Full disclosure, I like spring as well – with all the signs of new life – flowers, grass, budding trees, fragrant tree blossoms, bright sunshine! Fresh Beginnings, longer days, warmer days; we are so blessed by God’s nature around us!

Yes, it is Spring and yet that is exactly why I am thinking of snow. Spring snows are some of the BEST!! Often, Spring snows bless us with larger quantities of snow, at times they can be more of a surprise, it stays around just long enough to play, have fun, make memories, build a snowman or a snow fort, go sledding, have a snowball fight, or better yet, stay inside and commune with God simply enjoy God’s beautiful gift!! Spring snow is a blessing because it melts quickly, typically does not have enough time to get dirty or impose TOO much on OUR plans. These blessings go back to perspective and how you decide to respond to God’s gift of a variety of diverse weather in Kansas.

More importantly, remember to look at the characteristics of each day, give thanks and celebrate God’s blessing! Take time to notice & enjoy God’s creation and his incredible attention to detail. Likewise, make a choice to align your perspective to celebrate the many gifts that God has blessed us with, today, tomorrow and all the days ahead.

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20139%3A1-18&version=NIV