Joy in the Journey was inadvertently repeated from April 11th. The following is the Joy in the Journey column which should have appeared in the April 18th issue.
After spending the past weekend in the Omaha area with family, it was quite the sight to arrive home late Sunday night to a plugged driveway and a sight that looked more likeChristmas time than mid-April. Our son, Peter, had told us on the phone that the storm was brutal, and the aftermath sure seemed to appear that way.
Snow is defined as precipitation in the form of hexagonal crystals of ice, usually grouped together as snowflakes. No kidding!! They grouped together like they were on steroids this week!
” He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold?” Psalm 147: 16-17 This shows the power of our God, and when He sends the weather our way, we are at its mercy. We don’t share any of His control of our earthly weather.
Our former foster daughter, Merrily, in Ellsworth, chatted with me today and said they still don’t have their electricity back on from last Friday. They’re hoping it will be back up and running by Monday night. Thank goodness for generators that can give back-up power.
We remember a spring storm the end of March in 1975. We had three pre-school children and no electricity for four days. We put blankets in our kitchen to block the doorways, giving us a cozy little space to live for some extended hours. During the day we used a card table to eat and play, and in the evening we exchanged the table for a mattress for sleeping. We stayed warm by tying the gas valve open on the furnace in the basement, which then sent warm air up into the kitchen through the furnace vent. Our kitchen stove was gas, so the oven provided a little extra heat and cooking abilities. The kids didn’t think about any inconvenience at all. They stayed warm in their hoodies, and looked forward to whatever was going to happen next!
Isn’t it funny how we adapt to the situations at hand? Sometimes when we look back, we wonder how we did what we did. But life is what it is, and whatever things we can’t change, we just simply have to do the best we can! I am sure that is why God tells us to take one day at a time, as each day has enough troubles of its own! (Matthew 6:34)
As the bright sun shine dawned on Monday morning, the snow just glistened on the ground and in the drifts. It was a brilliant white, as we many times compare something pure and clean as “whiter than snow”. ( Psalm 51:7) Thinking back just a few weeks to our celebration of Easter, when the angel of the Lord appeared at the tomb. ” His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.” (Matthew 28:3)
While we were eating our supper that same evening, we commented how much the snow drifts and piles had already shrunken in the April sunshine. The sun is powerful, especially at this time of year. Soon we will once again have water running every which way, between the muddy ruts and down the water laden ditches.
Patience. Faith. We need a big dose of both as we wait for spring to finally arrive. That season between winter and summer when the trees are budding, plants begin growing, and the onset of warmer weather begins. God’s timing is not the same as ours, and “instant” is not one of His goals. We will just have to wait. On Him. That is such a hard concept sometimes!
