What's Under the Snow ?

Today while I was outside playing in the snow with the kids I was taken aback by it's beauty. I love the way the untouched snow is so flawless, so smooth. As I looked at the world around me, completely covered with a blanket of white, I couldn't help but think about what it was covering. The snow(as beautiful as it is) is nothing more than a temporary mask to reality.


When I look around today everything seems to be in order. The imperfections are all covered by the foot of snow that fell in the last 24 hours. It's beautiful now, but when the snow melts you will once again be able to see all the flaws. Without the snow you would easily see that my roof is waiting to be repaired. There are several rows of missing shingles and several more loose. You would also see the weeds in my flowerbeds and the leaves still waiting to be raked around the hedges that desperately need trimmed. You would see the cracks in the sidewalk and driveway, and the sticks that litter the yard from the latest wind storm. You would see some toys scattered about and some cardboard that blew out of the recycle bin on the porch. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. ---The snow hides things.


As I was thinking about all the things that the melting snow will reveal, I was struck by the parallels to life. Sometimes what's true and real is hidden beneath a temporary veil. Sometimes the snow lasts so long that we begin to believe that things will always be so beautiful. We start to believe that everyone else sees the snow and nothing that's underneath.

--We think that because we attend church and volunteer to serve every now and then that others don't notice our negative attitude or foul language. We think that because we sit with our family and smile on Sunday mornings that no one knows what a mess our home life is. We think that because our church starts new programs (and maybe even gets the numbers up for a few weeks) no one realizes there are lingering problems that desperately need to be addressed. We think that adding new members is a true sign of the health of our church, but we choose to ignore(or rationalize) the many members we have lost.

We think that because God continues to use us to do His work that we must be living by His Will.

We are human. Our thoughts are flawed. The snow WILL melt.

When it does I hope we aren't shocked by what we see. I hope we haven't been blinded by the beauty of the snow. I hope we can accept the reality of our problems and see the opportunity to repair what is broken.

We don't have to do it alone. We have a mighty force on our side if we choose to accept His leadership. God will see us through, but He won't help us hide under the snow.