Frost

It is a cold, icy, wintry day in Kansas City. Children rejoice across the metro as schools have closed. They are liberated from oppressive school work to enjoy the first real snow of the season, which is actually more ice than anything.

I'm often reminded of Robert Frost on days like today. I'm not exactly sure why that is . . . probably just because of his name. However, his poem "Dust of Snow" has helped to lighten an otherwise dark and hardened day.

Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued

And so I will rejoice in the ice and the snow because the Lord's mercies are new every morning. Wintry days only foreshadow the life that will break forth in the Spring. The sun is just beginning to break over the horizon, it is a new morning, a new day. A day to be celebrated.

Isaiah 43:18-21 (NRSV)
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I will give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.

The wilderness exile and the frozen winter, we might understand as symbolically representing the same thing - death. Yet, the promise of new life is ever with us, so we might find joy and peace even in the dark, cold valley. May we see the signs of life that break through the winter frost, and rejoice with all of creation. Soli Deo Gloria.