Blanket of snow

This morning I looked out of the window to see a blanket of snow covering my little corner of the world. It's still Winter and it's cold. So I'll stay inside and clean the house and wash the clothes; and I'll bake some bread--won't the kitchen be warm! And I'll thank God for the day. I'll walk next week when it's warmer. But for now, God has sent the snow; and the snow is beautiful.

Peace

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."

--Author unknown

Charity

"Without charity, the outward work profiteth nothing; but whatever is done out of charity, be it ever so little and contemptible, it is all made fruitful; in as much as God regardeth more out of how much love a man doth a work, than how much he doth."

--from The Following of Christ

Onward

"The best way out is always through."

--Robert Frost

Knightly

How knightly is the redwinged blackbird!
He wears his heart on his wing.

Birdlore

The sparrow served Him not as He was dying,
and so must hop from place to place.
The robin, seeing His suffering face,
pulled a thorn from His brow,
and wears His blood on his breast.
The swallow sang to to cheer Him on the cross.
The owl always signals loss,
he is the bird of darkness.
But the pure white dove, God's chosen one,
soars above the rest.

Seasons

It's Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and tonight I have a restless longing that I don't really understand. I took a walk this afternoon along one of my favorite paths, and the birds were singing all around me; it felt and looked so much like Spring. The branches on the trees were beginning to swell with the life within them, and I could feel the sun's warmth on my skin. But it's February, after all, and the cold weather is coming back in just a few days. It doesn't seem like Winter, but it's not yet Spring. And suddenly I want to be somewhere else, to run away from this uneasiness which seems to be stalking me tonight. Why do I feel this way? What is at the heart of this? So many questions crowd my mind.


But I think I'm beginning to understand. It is the time between seasons, and my life is at that place between seasons. I am enduring the long, cold Winter, with all of its shadows and uncertainty, as a bud hidden inside the rose ; and I am longing for the warmth of sunlight so that I can blossom once again. The seasons are overlapping, and time seems unbalanced somehow because of it. It is an awkward and unsettling place in which to be; and there are so many unanswered questions. But I know what I must do. It's the first day of Lent and, thanks be to God, I have something to offer to Him who makes all things new: myself. This is the time of ashes, but not so very many days from now these gray ashes will give place to the white lilies of Easter Sunday. I see now through clouded glass, but soon I will see clearly. There is everything good ahead of me; I must be patient. "All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven." There will be answers in God's time; and His timing is perfect.