HELLO!

I am told there is evidence we have less snow now than we did when I was a child (born 1963). Climate change? Likely. But we also know nostalgia is a powerful drug, were the amounts of snow we remembered as children as “mountainous” as our memories tell us? I tend to be skeptical of sentimentalism, a layer of “emotive blue light-filtering coating” that alters what we recall. On rare snow days as a child, my memory tells me my Scott (born 1965) and I made snow forts out of the HUGE pile of snow the plow pushed in front of our home (we were located at the end of a cul-de-sac in west end Halifax). My mother and our baby brother Chris (born 1970) watched from inside. Dad took the bus to work. We worked for hours making tunnels. I am not sure this was safe.

Even as I write this, it is hard to focus, my eyes keep getting pulled to the window. There is just nothing like snow outside. I don’t want to see it when I am driving but looking at it in my yard is something else entirely. Covering the tree branches and rooftops like frosting on a cinnamon roll.

The Bible rarely mentions snow. When we think of the Holy Land, the image of a dry, hot Mediterranean dessert is the backdrop. But it does snow in Israel, mainly in certain parts of the country. Nothing like here.

When snow is mentioned in the Bible powerful ideas surround it: In the book of Job, the author uses snow to communicate God’s power and wonder. In chapter 37, Job was encouraged to, “Stop and consider the wonderful miracles of God” (v. 14). Snow days make us pause. Our routines are disrupted and often we are graced with a “free day.” Today, stop and reflect on what God might want to teach me in the snowfall.

On Epiphany Sunday, when we worshipped with five local United Churches, I shared, knowing Blair MacKinnon (member of Grace United) was in attendance, “When you absolutely need someone, right away, and you want the answer to be yes, you call on Blair.” That was/is true. If I could do that over again, I would make one change. “And Jim Allen”. On several occasions, after a night’s snowfall, I have come to the office, only to see Jim with a shovel in his hands. Jim has a big heart but…we need to care for our brother Jim. We don’t want to cause more stress to his heart. Please, join me, in encouraging Jim to leave his shovel at home, look out his window, and enjoy the beauty of God’s snowy Creation. Bethe has volunteered to dress as an Angel, go to Jim’s home, and proclaim to him, “Behold, I bring you great joy, Thou Art a child of the most Holy One, and Thou Desireth You to stay in your dwelling, and offer sounds of great thanksgiving for your life, your family and your God.”

We are all in this together. Happy Snow Day. Peace, Kevin

PS Photo #1 taken by Brian Williams. Photo #2 taken by Nancy Allen.