“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”
~ Mary Oliver
Snow. Some days it is nothing more than a word in a dictionary. Other days, it smacks us in the face with the brunt of a winter storm. That was pretty much what we experienced yesterday.
Early in the morning, those of us who are “early risers” looked outside and said to ourselves, “We dodged the bullet.” Little did we know that the gun was going to go off around 6:45 a.m. and dump snow, snow, and more snow upon us.
Before we knew it, roads were slippery and several of them were closed by accidents. Cars were slipping and sliding. Later in the day, it began to snow so heavy in a classic lake effect storm that we had a whiteout.
We may not have liked it; however, we had to face it as it came our way.
Yesterday’s snow is an analogy of life. There are many things in our lives that we do not like to face but they come our way nonetheless. One of those things is our own sinfulness.
Lent gives us the chance to search ourselves and see how sin is marring our soul. If we do not like the ugliness that we see, we need to change it. Just as we do when we get out the shovels or snowblowers or plows, so, too, we need to employ as many tools as possible to clean up our lives and turn to good.
One of the best ways to turn to good is to train ourselves to see good. If all we see is ugliness around us, we will tend to opt for the ugly. But, there is beauty in everything because it has all been touched by God. Even the snow. As Mary Oliver reminded us, maybe the reason for the snow was its prettiness.
We may not have seen “pretty” when we looked at the roads covered in snow, the sidewalks caked with drifts, and snow blowing through the air and on our faces. But when we took a moment to look at the trees and plants, we saw the mantle of white that they wore and, for a while, we could enjoy the beauty of nature.
Our lives may get rough and tattered and torn. But there is a lot of good in them nonetheless. It is up to us to find it, to see it, and to cherish it.
FAITH ACTION: Try to look for the best in things and people today.