[image: Cold Day, 2009, JA Van Devender]
Is 55:10–11
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
The view from the parking lot after a snow fall is pretty much the same no matter what year it is. I opened the door to take a photo or two of the snow fall, felt the searing cold wind snap right through my wind breaker (it's 15 deg and the chill factor has to be below zero) and decided that there really wasn't any need for yet another picture of a beautiful snow fall. Rationalization is a wonderful device.... especially after spending an hour or so this morning before daylight shoveling my drive way. I conceded victory and looked at some old photos. This particular image is almost identical to the view beyond our parking lot today... about the only difference is the wind-whipped spray that hurrys across the field on occasion. Beyond that, the sky's blue and the stark white show the same.
We don't often equate snow and rain in their positive effects as Isaiah does above. In some dim corner of our brain we know that they both bring life-giving water to the soil but snow is beautiful for a moment or two then it starts looking pretty ugly and the drivers of those various cars I saw in the ditch this morning probably had less than kind words to say about it. Rain, for the most part is just rain. Unless there is a flood we accept it without much notice. Everyone notices a snow fall.
I think something might be said about God's providence here. It is the extraordinary things that get noticed, both those that bring misery and those that are great blessings. Both a hurricane and a bountiful harvest belong to the same ultimate class of providential ordering. Both are necessary in their time as dictated by the hidden counsels of the Almighty. But both those things get noticed. One type for its immediate ugliness of effect... its pointed reminder of God's wrath and power... the other for its beauty.... its equally pointed reminder of His grace. Snow reminds us of God's purity and the cleansing power of His blood. It also is a storehouse of nourishment, gradually soaking the soil rather than having its moisture run off into the creeks and refreshing the sea. As we ponder it we are reminded that God does all things well. His architectural elegance is evident in the perfect meshing of His creation... the exact balance of those elements which make life possible on this planet and which is missing from all other planets that we know.
I gaze out the window... the coffee warming my hands... and rejoice in my God. I may grumble and complain.. and I do, way too often... when His providential ordering does not comply with my particular selfish desires at the moment, but there are times like these when sky, sunrise and glistening landscape seem perfectly constituted to draw our thoughts to Him. The extraordinary things of His providence remind us that He is here... His "ordinary" things, our daily bread, the breath that moves in and out of our lungs, the constancy of family and friends, the frustrations attendent to living under the curse... these things are just as evocative and instructive as His snowfalls, but not often do we notice them, after all, they are ordinary. So, today, when He has given us something to notice it seems right to notice them and ponder what they teach.
Everything is beautiful in its own way... in its own time...
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