Receding Snow

Day after day sparkling white blankets covered the world, and gave the earth permission to pause. Now the pristine mounds of white are nearly gone, soaking silently into the earth, and chasing soiled slush down grated drains. Is winter melting away, the long-awaited snow too soon relinquishing its place, receding and signaling the earth to slowly turn from its needed rest? Are these disappearing mounds the last moments of this winter’s dream?

I’m reluctant to let go of this beautiful blanket. Its familiarity, the precious memories it brings are being jerked from me, leaving me exposed to lifeless, ugly, hidden, weedy things. Will winter snows return and cover me, insulate me again from my present griefs? Or from winter’s repose will I, too, be yanked into high gear, forced to race speeding lawnmowers as the earth pushes and the sun pulls tender grasses higher? Will I, too, be pushed and pulled, and then beneath life’s whirling blades, be cut off, thrown aside, left as mulch, thrown away? With the world’s ever-increasing clamor of a falling sky, will I, too, find myself barely escaping Foxy-woxy, fleeing to my Henny-penny nest to fulfill my simple purpose?

Leaving me flat, like the spent Hosta leaves splayed under the junipers, the evening’s grey fog sucks more air from my flagging mood. Gazing at the truth before me this late-January week, hope slowly lifts me to see through my losses and the loss of the beautiful, long-awaited snow. There are lovely things peeking up. Greening grass, the promise of flowers, and the unseasonal appearance of flocks of robins. Rising warmth and gently soothing rains are washing the streets clean again. So what if ugly raises a hoary head or weeds begin to grow? New beauty proclaims life, and hope still wins over the unlovely things.

Holding the blessings of this brief winter’s dream, I’ll remember with the earth…rest and snow will come again. God holds the earth, the sky, the snow, the rain. He is my rest, my hope, my safety nest, and the One who tends my everything.

~~~

Thank You, LORD, that we may find our rest in You no matter the busyness, demands, losses, or challenges of our days. Thank You for being with us every moment and for teaching us to trust You. Transform us, please, to walk in Your ways, rest in Your peace, find safety in Your everlasting arms, and share Your Hope and Truth in this hurting world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Job 37:6-7 NIV “He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ 7 So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor.”

Exodus 33:14 CSB ‘And he replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”’

1 Peter 1:24-25 NIV ‘For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”’

Psalm 4:8 NKJV “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”