Growing up around Chicago, has brought me many snowy winters throughout my childhood. I don't remember ever having such dislike towards the winter as I seem to have now. It really all got worse when I came back from California. When I came back and drove through the snow and the sleet and the rain - it just brought me down. I missed the sunshine and the warmth of where I had been living. And when it snowed, it just seemed to piercingly represent all that california isn't - and I, of course, wasn't ready to let go just yet and every snow just reminded me of what I couldn't have. But here I am now, able to look at the beauty that has come from it.
Yesterday, was one of the worst blizzards I have seen in some time. The wind whipped, it was dreary, the roads were horrendous and it was too hard to even go outside to play. I was so angry and annoyed. We had to go to the grocery store to get food for the next few days, and then we shoveled the massive driveway/parking area. I was cold and soaked with snow and I could have just screamed. Instead I made dinner, and put a movie in for the boys. I was so excited when i went to leave that the snow had stopped, it was peaceful once again. Only to pull up to my house and realize that I needed to shovel out some spaces for parking. Initially I grumbled, I got the shovel and barricaded thru the mounds of snow. But then, I stopped. I looked out at the forest line behind the house. I was captured by it's beauty. The snow, was glistening in the night. It was so pure, so clean, so beautiful. I could have just stood there and starred for hours. I started to shovel as I marveled at how such beautiful scenery was brought by such a horrendous storm. Three hours earlier, I never would have imagined such a peaceful night - but here it was. And how amazing, that God can do that with our lives. That he can take the storms and the ugliest moments of our lives and turn them into beauty and aww. That he can take those storms and remove them - make them stop - and bring about a new peace. And allow us to start clean. To be pure and sparkling and beautiful.
Heaven, for God must be like a snow storm. After everything he has had to watch, and the storms He had to put his son through, Heaven is the place where God can create such beauty, permanently.
