Grace Like Snow

 All fall we had only a few drops of rain. The whole yard was dusty and dry, and dirt clung to the house and crept into every crevice. To make matters worse, a nearby retirement home has a building project going on with mountains of dirt that blow this way with every westerly gale.

I watered the trees and the perennials, washed windows, and hosed down the front porch, but it didn’t seem to do much good. Out in the backyard, there was no getting rid of the grimy build up on the steps leading to the garden. Even the soft green moss that generally grows between the patio pavers turned gray. Freeze-dried perennials looked drab as they nodded in the wane autumn sun.

Then, the last week of November snow began to fall. Big, wet, white flakes feathered down from the sky. At first, the snow melted into the parched grass, but then it began to build up. An inch of snow. Eight inches of snow. Eighteen inches of snow. By early December, we had as much snow as we’d had all the winter before.

The mail truck couldn’t get through, then school was cancelled, very rare occurrences in our normally dry climate. Adults groaned with the thought of digging out driveways and pushing their way through unplowed streets. Kids, on the other hand, could be seen outside in the worst of it, building snowmen or going sledding.

If you could see beyond the work and inconvenience, the city was prettier than any magazine photograph. The view from my office window, even now, is of Colorado spruce and bull pine trees bowed under a blanket of sparkling white. Stepping outside you can smell evergreens, their refreshing fragrance released by the moisture.

I once had a revelation of what God’s grace would look like if we could actually see it. I saw grace as white, pristine snow covering all of the less than beautiful parts of our lives. That was how He was seeing the world, seeing us, through the grace-filled covering His son Jesus provided for us.

Only heavenly beings and astronauts have seen the world from far away. James Irwin, a pilot on Apollo 15, said this about his flight into space, “The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine.”

David McCasland tells the story of astronaut Charles Frank Bolden’s thoughts as he viewed the world from 400 miles up. It all looked peaceful and beautiful to him and he felt that he was viewing earth as it ought to be.

Earth as it ought to be. On earth as it is in heaven, peaceful, beautiful, inspiring.

Maybe God is also looking down from heaven at this war torn world and His children carrying heavy burdens. Maybe he’s saying, “Believe in Me, let your worries go, and ask for my help!”

I believe. Yes, I believe He has the power and the love to help us. I believe He’s provided the grace to cover the burdens of yesterday, today and tomorrow. And just like the earth seems to sigh and rest under the weight of the snow, we can rest under His amazing grace.

Oh, to live like that, under the thick blanket of pure love and apply His grace for all of our shortcomings and worries. To quit shoveling through the messes in our lives and instead go hop in his sleigh and enjoy the wonders around us.

So, let’s let go of our burdens this Christmas and spend some time with Him. Let God’s grace envelop you, and know that when he says, “Lo, I am with you always,” that he means it. That is the message of Christmas delivered by the Messiah.