This year all the snow we generally receive over the course of winter, has dropped more than sufficiently in just one month – which has just begin. Winter in Minnesota lasts for about six months, so we need to find some reason to enjoy it or we tend to go a little crazy up here.  Add to the snow, temperatures that dip well below zero and you have a combination worthy of hibernation.  But we Minnesotans are a hearty lot.  Many of us are of German or Scandinavian descent.  Our ancestors grew up in much the same climate we muddle through each year.  Perhaps that’s why they settled here.

One way to find joy in winter is to take a close look at the formations of ice on the branches of trees – or explore the etched frozen displays which appear each morning on your windows.  You could take a walk through the deep snow, fill your boots with it, breathe in the fresh, wholesome air and simply take it all in.  You can build a snow fort, a snow man, a battery of snowballs for future use or you can stick your tongue out and catch the glistening flakes as they gently fall from the sky.  Just don’t apply your tongue to a metal pole or you may remain in place until the next thaw.

There is so much of God’s glory expressed in winter.  The snowflake, for example, is unique in its formation.  There is not another snowflake like it. One of a kind, created with precision, beauty and divine perfection.  Just like us.  We are each unique.  We all have something to bring to the table.  Some have great minds, superior creativity, good looks, entrepreneurial skills, ways to solve problems sensibly and so much more.  We all look different too.  Even identical twins have something unique in their DNA.  Those with special needs also can be of great value to society.  We come in all sizes, shapes, colors, belief systems, each with a special gift that will benefit the whole.

We’re like those delicate snowflakes in a way.  Each one different and unique, yet when joined together they become a force to be reckoned with.  (Remember those snowballs and what they have the potential of doing.)

My point this morning is not only to treasure the gift of winter, but to look at those around us and see unique individuals who when melded together with others can do great things.  We each have the ability to work for the common good, but as a unit, imagine what we can accomplish.

“There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson