O'er Our Tumultuous Snow!

It snowed today! There are people who don't like snow. I don't understand them. Never will. Sorry. This time of year excites me like no other. Autumn is deepening into winter and my soul is snuggling into something warm and familiar. I love what winter does (at least in my latitude). It quiets everything and slows life down. Furnaces and fireplaces radiate welcome warmth and thick comfortable coats come out of hiding from their closets. There's nothing like getting bundled up to go outside. For me it's a feeling of security and comfort.

Whether it's a crystal night as cold as stone and hard as iron or a bitter day that takes my breath away I cherish the experience of winter. It's invigorating in some strange way.

So I'm back to poetry now, quoting C.S. Lewis again:

PATTERN

Some believe the slumber

Of trees is in December

When timber's naked under sky

And squirrel keeps his chamber.

But I believe their fibres

Awake to life and labour

When turbulence comes roaring up

The land in loud October.

And plunders, strips, and sunders

And sends the leaves to wander

And undisguises prickly shapes

Beneath the golden splendour.

Then form returns. In warmer,

Seductive days, disarming

Its firmer will, the wood grew soft

And put forth dreams to murmur.

Into earnest winter

With spirit alert it enters;

The hunter wind and the hound frost

Have quelled the green enchanter.

Clive loved winter and I think Robert Frost did, too (how appropriate). I stole a line from his poems "Stars" to title this post.

A good blanket of snow also calls to mind Isaiah 1:18 and reminds me of the covering - no, the cleansing - that Christ provides for me. My sin is hidden and gone and all that is left is the sparkling brightness of His righteousness.