Snow!

I am looking out at a white garden as many other people are this morning. The birds continue to sing and scramble for seeds, the squirrels are chasing one another to see who can find the best hidden nuts and generally the landscape looks amazing!  The trees are tinged with white and in places icicles hang precariously from various parts of trees, washing lines and bird tables, but I have this sneaking feeling that to most of us this type of weather is only acceptable on Christmas Day when according to our cards, only Father Christmas and Robins enjoy it!

If you are like me, you have been advised from every corner to stay put and keep warm! So the country as we know it, a normally busy thoroughfare with hundreds of cars, pedestrians and public transport, comes to a halt because of snow!  Now it would actually be folly for me, a wheelchair user to try to get to my car or travel down our quiet cul-de-sac as I would probably skid or get stuck with my wheels whizzing around and would thus be of no help to anyone, so I am obeying all the advice and staying put.

On reflection, I have been thinking how like the snow our lives actually are. What do I mean?  Well, some of us manage to look amazingly lovely on the outside, photographs are taken of us, clothing is bought at enormous expense and, like the snow we can and often do look a real picture of beauty. But what is going on inside that exterior? This lovely landscape of ours is hiding some treacherously slippery and dangerous surfaces, it is in fact hiding a darker side. How are our lives shaping up at the moment?  Are we like the freshly falling snow, beautiful on the surface, but underneath hiding resentment, anger, remorse, unhappiness, fear etc?  Let’s promise to get a shovel at our lives today and clear away all that which is not seen because it is not on the surface – the Lord only needs a nudge to help you do this!   Have a good, warm and safe day!