This year has been filled with surprise after surprise. I believe 2022 will go down in history as one we’d love to forget. This morning the sky opened up and gently expelled flakes of white upon an already colorful blanket of reds and oranges. Another surprise. We always seem stunned to see the first snow of the season, but we shouldn’t be. Snow is a mainstay in Minnesota. In a way those giant flakes of white could be construed as manna from heaven, being poured down on a weary world. It is like a washing away of all the ugliness that has transpired for the past ten months or even longer. As it actually begins to stick to the ground, I’m wondering if this is yet another sign of the state of our world right now. God has been speaking to us and we seem not to hear Him.

Maybe shaking the crystal snowball will get our attention. Remember how as children we were fascinated as fake snow flew through the confines of an orb, and dusted everything with a coating of white? Somehow that same feeling is closing in on me right now as I look out my window and watch giant flakes of cleansing snow, caress the landscape. Perhaps it’s just an omen of what is to come. Maybe, as the Farmer’s Almanac indicates, we’re in for a long, long winter. Whatever the case, there is nothing like the first snowfall of the year.

As I sit here viewing this glorious first look at winter, I can’t help but be hopeful. God is still in His sanctuary. We have His protection, no matter what comes our way. He has washed us clean of all the bigotry, hatred, bias, racism, fear, depression that comes from a long time in the wilderness. He is still in control, whether we believe that or not. Nothing will get in His way, except our inability to believe that He exists.

Moon beams sift through pines on new fallen snow,

Light sufficient to find the way back home,

Heavy load weighs on icy roads below,

Weight of the world upon that glistening dome.

The tree of life stands firmly in its place,

It will not move in any time or space,

For God so loved this world He would not spare,

The One who came to us – His love to share,

To melt the ice of frozen hearts in sin,

Refreshed and washed as white as snow by Him.

POETRY BY KATHY BOECHER