Snow

So much to say, and so few words to say it.

I have been lax in my blogging lately. For as much as has been on my mind, I am here to somewhat happily report that I have started living out those thoughts instead of simply writing them down. But writing them down is important, too. The act of writing memorializes so it can, in the future, remind – the Ebenezer effect, if you will.

But today’s post won’t be about all the questions and surprisingly simple answers that have been floating around in my spirit lately. I would be remiss to not devote this post largely to snow.

~~~

It started on Friday, technically, but the controlled chaos started Thursday night as almost everyone in D.C. descended on their neighborhood grocery store. The lines were incredible (it took us an hour) and largely full of people complaining about the fact that D.C. weather forecasters always overhyped major events – hurricanes, snowfalls – but their very presence in the overpopulated supermarket indicated that, even if they were aware of it, the joke was still very much on them.

Work on Friday was low-key, focused on tying up loose ends before our much-anticipated early release, which was scheduled for 2 and moved up to 1. By the time I left, a wet snow was coming down but not doing a very good job of sticking.

That would change.

~~~

I absolutely love it when it snows at night, how the low clouds and trillions upon trillions of snowflakes, on the ground and in the air, catch and multiply the yellow glow of the streetlights. It feels like an eerie daylight, and on Friday night it served as the backdrop for those who wandered out to take in the first few inches that had accumulated. Snowball fights, punctuated by squeals of joy, started by virtue of the fact that the snow was already perfectly packable.

And people, who were obviously D.C. residents (who else would be wandering the streets at this hour of the night?), actually smiled at each other as they passed in the street.

~~~

We woke to about 11 inches on Saturday. I bounded to the front door, eager for my first opportunity to shovel snow, where my much-more-experienced-in-matters-of-snow roommate informed me that my boots would be insufficient to the task. I retreated to the kitchen (I know I can at least be useful there) and started on breakfast while I waited for the one pair of real snow boots in the apartment to be vacated.

I got my chance at shoveling. I didn’t make myself of as much use as I would’ve liked, but I got a little experience under my belt. Other firsts included seeing a blizzard warning on my Weather Channel home page, sledding in front of the Capitol, and building a (now famous) snowman on the Capitol grounds.

The official final count in our backyard was 21 inches.

~~~

It’s still a winter wonderland out there, with plenty of untouched snow, dangerous-yet-beautiful icicles, and ready smiles and laughter among those who, like me, left with a sense of wonder. Part of it, of course, is that I am spoiled; our power has stayed on, we have an ample store of food (going to the store on Thursday night, crazy as it was at the time, was a really good thing), I haven’t had to be out on the roads, and I’ve had an unexpected four-and-a-half day vacation. Possibly more, if the storm that’s coming in tonight delivers what they say it might. (Hoping that didn’t jinx it...)

I know these conditions can be dangerous, but as I sit in the couch by the living room window, waiting for the first flakes from the new storm to fall, I consider the Majesty behind it all:

God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. For He says to the snow, ‘fall on the earth;’ likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. Job 37:5-6

What an amazing world God created, and what a good Provider He is – giving us the moisture the ground will need in vibrant spring and sweltering summer. The snow will melt and give life to the daffodils and tulips and cherry blossoms and verdant trees. We may be able to model the meteorological patterns, but who can fathom what’s really going on here?

Then sings my soul, my Saviour, God, to Thee – how great Thou art, how great Thou art!