If only the world could be filled with the same joy and excitement and thrill over a child seeing the first trace of snow…what a world it could be. Granted, the first trace a couple days ago seemed to be rather miniscule in comparison to the seemingly doomsday prediction of the anticipated amount, but minor detail. The children don’t know about the intricacies of weather patterns and freeze points and lake effects. They don’t have to worry about ice-scrapers and shovels and salt and defrosts and brakes and other drivers on the road. They just see the result of natural science on the ground, and they’re overcome with joy and excitement and a thrill not just over the sight but of the potential play-filled possibilities…as long as their parental figures cave in. If only the world could even be slightly filled with that nearly holy combination…what a world it would be.
Of course, at some point, our respective homefront will be overwhelmed with the white precipitation (perhaps out of spite to me mocking the immense prediction just now). It will be another year of wondering if we need to cave in to the supposedly wise (especially for long-term physical well-being and all) but the not-so-cheap snow-blower. But frugalness and an insistence on exercise (or something like that) will prevail, and the shovel will be pulled out, yet again. Except, whenever the onslaught happens from the sky, there will be a moment when I look out the window with awe and amazement and a belief that goodness is still out there: as a neighbor will take their snow-blower up and down the sidewalks of more houses than I can imagine in the not-so-comfortable surroundings.
And yet, it won’t be the same neighbor every time. There are multiple enactors of goodness on that street and many other paths in this world. But I wonder if it started with one snow-blower-pusher whose kindness unleashed a domino effect for further awe and amazement and a more convinced belief in goodness from others standing looking out their windows over the daunting (at least, for the more-advanced-in-years children of God) immediate landscape.
I wonder if God looks amongst our human landscape and still sees goodness in spite of all the not-so-goodness we are more than fully aware of in our immediate and more distant worlds. I wonder if God doesn’t just see pockets of goodness in individual actions, but a goodness of love and hope and mercy blanketing the entirety of us. I have a feeling God still does…somehow, someway. I have a feeling God does, because it was God who sprawled out that warmest embrace over humanity in Jesus Christ. What a world it should be with that Gospel reality, but we still have work to do, to say the least: in our homes, our neighborhoods, our churches, and beyond. But through it all, no matter the conditions, no matter how unpleasant the surroundings, Christ will still show up right in front of us with a love for us and for our neighbors, too. Thanks be to God!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad