Nashville is a winter wonderland. Well, okay, it was a winter wonderland yesterday. Today the sun is coming
Outside my front door
out and by afternoon I’m sure the winter wonderland will look a little more like dirty slush pond. But for a day everything was covered. And no remnant of the death that winter seems to offer could be seen.
When I was looking out my front door yesterday at the beauty of it all, I thought, “Where did all my scraggly plants go?” Even though it is all still there it was so beautifully covered and hidden. God is like that you know…Our junk is still there. But God so beautifully covers it all up with a reflection of himself. Snow has an amazing ability to reflect light. Did you know you can get a suntan from snow! Just saying…yes, I do know these things. And that is what God does with our lives. All of our flesh, our sin, our dysfunction, our fears, our anxieties…they are all still there. But heaven comes in and covers them with Himself.
It is there that we begin to gain his reflection. To become a reflection of Him. It is there that His spirit begins to saturate our flesh and our flesh becomes less and less visible and He becomes more and more seen. I still see my flesh way too much. I see it in my anger, in my fears, in my pride, in my doubts. I see it and wonder how all of that can still be in there. But in a moment God gives me a glimpse of Himself. Of realizing that His grace is sufficient.
It is always snowing somewhere. If not here…(and trust me it usually isn’t here- but somewhere in Alaska it is always snowing and Sarah Palin can see it from her back yard:) And it is snowing in people’s lives too. Covering their sin. Wiping over their shame. Bringing them a different reflection. And revealing that God is so loving and kind and faithful to wipe off the old and write the new.
My sweet friend Stephanie Boosahda wrote a song about this called “Somewhere it’s snowing.” I used to sing it years ago and didn’t realize that she wrote and recorded it until she sang it our VBS this past summer. But it is. Do you need it? Need a little bit of Him to cover up a lot of you? I do everyday. Some days I feel like the dirty slush I’ll drive through today. Other days I feel clean and covered. But I hope we never forget that when He comes in who we are is covered…completely covered.
Thank you my friend, I love you.
I am the dirty slush today……Not sure there’s enough snow in the world……..
Susan – our Father owns the snow and can make as much as we need! Your comments could have come out of my mouth too. I feel the same way – but I know our God is big enough, loving, and compassionate enough to handle all the dirty slush. Be encouraged HE is very near you. Several years ago I listened as an elder Christian friend prayed a prayer ( following the death of a young man we all loved deeply) that went something like this, “Lord there are those of us here who do not understand, some who may even be angry at you, but that is ok, because you are a big enough God to handle our hurts, pains, disappointments, and frustrations.” He is Susan. He is even big enough to handle our goof ups, and our failure. In other words, HE extends His grace. We just have to accept his forgiveness too.
Thank you Teresa………..