The weatherman pointed to the numbers on what I assumed was
a green screen. “Two to three inches of frozen precipitation,” he said confidently with a
big smile on his face. He seemed trustworthy.
I just love snow.
So, like others in our area. We battened down the hatches.
We made the trip to the grocery store, actually two grocery stores, because that precooked bacon with no nitrites at Trader Joe’s is yummy(they don't even pay me to say that). We added a
trip to a big box because I had to stock up on birdseed and suet, too.
I made sure the Styrofoam covers were on the outside faucets
and swept the patio so the snow wouldn’t have leaves sticking up through it. I wanted some great pictures.
We fetched the formerly feral Mama Kitty and brought her
inside. She was extremely grumpy about being pinned up for days.
Then we waited.
And waited.
I even got up during the night to check outside.
Four flakes and cold rain.
Seriously.
Then for two days, temperatures that would make a polar bear
shiver
Snowless.
If I’m going to be cold, I’d like to have something to show
for it.
But nature didn’t see it that way this time.
Mama Kitty glared at me. I went out and knocked the ice out
of the birdbaths. Disappointment and big sigh.
Perhaps, in a greater way, here at the beginning of the
year, you’re experiencing disappointment because you thought things would be
different today. You trusted someone who didn’t come through. You’ve gone to great
measures to prepare in anticipation of what you thought would happen. But it
didn’t.
Life can be like that.
However, what you choose next can change everything.
Here at the crossroads of dismay and hope, we have to choose
hope no matter what. Because the minute we turn in the other direction, it’s a
rough road of constant regret.
Yes, you’re probably going to be let down again at some
point. On the other hand, who knows what God will do?
So, even though the temps are going to be in the sixties for the next few days, I’m not putting my snow boots and down vest up yet. The
biggest snow of my life fell on April 1, so we have plenty of time.
“God can do anything, you know—far more
than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does
it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and
gently within us. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could
ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by
pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within
us” (Ephesians 3:20-21).