Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

The thermometer on my back porch reads 20 degrees and we woke up to snow on the ground! … A white, soft, feathery two inches of snow! We hardly ever get snow here in Las Cruces, NM and so it’s such a delight and treat when we do. Now as I look out my window the sun has risen to reflect itself in sugary sparkly rays off the snow and as it warms the world, fine powdery snow drifts off the trees and floats softly to the ground. And the song that’s running through my head is … “Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!”

At this time of year right before Christmas, with this being just the very beginning of colder weather …not cold as in staying in the 20’s or even going to be in the 20’s regularly, but rather that it is just “beginning to look a lot like Christmas” weather …snow is wonderful, awesome, magical …especially as I’m living in a very snug home, my heater works, and my fireplace is burning.

But if my circumstances were different … like some of the homeless guys who live under the trees near the overpass to the highway … or if I couldn’t afford to pay the gas, or coal bill like friends of mine in Canada … or if this was the end of a very hard cold winter and I thought it was going to finally be spring but instead it was another two inches of snow … then the 20 degrees on my thermometer would conjure up entirely different feelings … magical would be replaced with tragic … feathery with icy cold … soft white with icy glare.

Proverbs 29:25 says “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe” I’d like to offer a suggestion that you could replace the word ‘man’ with ‘circumstances’ … “Fear of ‘circumstances’ will prove to be a snare.” How we see our situation -our circumstances- will determine the attitudes and actions that we have and our responses to other people. In Revelation John says that the best reason for reading that book is to receive a blessing. My dad always says that the main message of revelation is “We Win!” … in the end we win! The writer of Hebrews says that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

It is so important that we ‘read’ today’s story in light of ‘Christmas Is Coming’ … Christ is coming back … it’s exciting and fresh and new. If we interpret the snow -today’s story- in light of the past, in light of our feelings, in light of what the news media tells us, then the 20 degrees -our circumstances- is devastating news, the two inches of snow becomes the feared two inches that will break the camel’s back instead of two more inches to fill the water aquifers underground.

“… but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” Trust the Lord today regardless of how you see the snow today, regardless of your circumstances. He is the One who can keep you safe, who can provide, protect, defend. He is FOR you! God tells us in Proverbs 1:7 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Now there’s a place to put some healthy fear. Fear God. Serve Christ. Love Men. And … “Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!”

Matt Redman - You Never Let Go
From the album Passion 06: Everything Glorious

Even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught

in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light

that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Chorus:
Yes, I can see a light

that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You