Snow Days

For once the weatherman got it right! Well, almost. He predicted the snow Saturday and Sunday, he just thought we were going to get 4-6 inches. Well.........we got 11 inches. Because of that swing and a miss, the schools and churches have been closed since Sunday and the community is suffering from cabin fever. Even the granddaughter that I home school got snow days because once you hit our county, the roads were covered with ice and it was too dangerous to bring her up from Memphis.

You know, snow is a funny thing (not funny ha,ha, but funny peculiar). It is beautiful to look at as the early morning sun hits the surface and you can see the pattern and drifts form by the wind. Truthfully, I had seen snow drifts before, but I had never seen the wind pattern on the top of the snow. City dwellers don't get to see much of that because the other houses block most of the wind. Out here Saturday afternoon through Sunday, it was every man for himself with white out conditions most of the night.

Snow is also great fun. We don't have much snow in these parts but I can remember back in the sixties when Memphis had 18 inches of snow. I remember snowball fights with my brothers and making a huge snowman with my mom and dad (okay, it probably wasn't huge, but it looked huge to me since I had never seen one). I even remember a 10 inch snow fall in the 80's when my boys and I went outside and built a snow man and had snow ball fights. I used to love to be out playing in the snow.

Now, since my bones have become fragile and I cost possibly $140,000 - $160,000 to fix if I mess up these artificial hips, I am actually afraid of the snow. One slip could land me in a wheelchair so now I have to content myself with watching my crazy yellow lab rolling snowballs down the hill and relishing in this new substance that actually changes depths. One time she was running and ended up up to her chest in snow. You should have seen her face! Undaunted, she just turned around and went back to sticking her nose in the snow until she made a snowball and then pushing it so she could watch it roll down the hill. What fun!

I realized as I watched her in the snow that snow is somewhat like Satan in my new perspective. It is beautiful, just like sin and Satan are. 2 Colossians 1:4 states, "for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Ezekiel 28: 12 calls him perfect in beauty. He is beautiful to look at. After all, we wouldn't be tempted if he came up in a red union suit with horns, a pointed tail and pitchfork. We'd know who he was and run the other way!

But Satan is a beautiful temptation. He is an angel of light and perfect in beauty, kind of like the snow. But under that light and sparkle and beauty, is hidden danger. There is ice beneath that snow and drifts that we can get into that we can't get out of. For example, the big snow I told you about when I was a kid. My youngest brother was just a toddler and literally got into a snow drift and could not get out. So the other four of us made this "chain of life" from shortest to tallest, and had to pull him out because he could not get out by himself. He had gotten in too deep.

There are many who have been deceived by the beauty, felt the danger beneath, and gotten in too deep in this world. It is the duty of the church to pull them out just like we did my little brother. We can't just freeze them out with "Well, he should have known better." If he knew better, he would have done better. He was tempted by the beauty of the temptation and then began to slide on the ice underneath. Just like the rest of us do every day. We may not get in over our heads, but we sure love to play in it.

Why not form a "chain of life" this week and present the gospel to some unbeliever you come in contact with. You never know who you might pull out of the snow.