Snow Days

"God thunders marvelously with His voice;
      He does great things which we cannot comprehend.
 ⁶ For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’;
      Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength."  Job 37:5-6

A week or so ago I was looking at the calendar for December and regretting how busy it was.  This past weekend we just came through in particular.  After a very busy week of Nutcracker, I was really regretting how busy our next weekend was looking, and wishing that we hadn't had so many things going on.  And yet, most of those things that we were going to do involved other people, and we couldn't just not do them.  But then as last week began we did drop a few of the things, it just had to be done.  Our weekend was looking less busy, but still busy.

God had other plans for our family.  :)

It began Friday morning with a phone call that my new nephew, Samuel, had arrived almost four full weeks early!  What a wonderfully joyous and blessed way to begin a weekend, rejoicing at the arrival of a new family member.  And the weekend just went up from there.  The kids and I had a great Friday.  We spent the day cleaning up a bit, playing games, and getting ready to spend a little time with Andy later that evening after he'd been gone for the week.   And then the weather started rolling in.

Saturday we woke to a snowstorm warning, and a few inches of snow.  I still had a few things that I had to go do that day, but they only took a couple of hours.  Everything else had been cancelled because of the snowstorm.  By later afternoon, we were no longer in a snowstorm warning, but a blizzard warning.  But there we were, at home, all of us, safe and snug, and we had a great day just spending time together. 

Then we woke up Sunday morning to get ready for church- still blizzarding outside, but if church was going on, we were going to go.  Nope, a few phone calls later, all services for the day had been cancelled, and we had another entire day all to ourselves.  Our busy weekend was completely fizzled, and we ended up spending the entire weekend at home.  Now normally, by the end of three days all together, we're getting on each other's nerves just a little bit.  We're looking at doing something different or just going somewhere.  That is not the case here, as we all feel like we've celebrated Christmas this weekend.  Because our weekend is still going.

Because of the blizzard the last two days, Andy is not working today, so we have yet another day to just hang out at home, doing whatever may strike our fancy, and we're all happy about it.  Later on, Abigail has her Monday dance classes, but in the meantime, we just get to enjoy each other and celebrate this Christmas spirit that seems to have taken over our household. 

There is joy here- such great joy, though if we looked around at the natural circumstances, there might not be joy.  It might not have been joyful for Andy to spend a few hours digging out yesterday, but I daresay he had a good time doing it, and getting the vehicles prepared for icy cold weather. 

It just reminds me that God is so good, and so incredible.  Just when we had this busy weekend in front of us where we weren't even going to see Andy very much, we were all so busy, God decided we needed some quality family time together.  And did we get it!  Honestly, I feel like I've had a vacation, only better, because I don't have a mountain of luggage to unpack and laundry to get done. God knew exactly what we needed, and He made sure that we got it.  And now, we don't have all that busy of a month to look at.  We have a few things, enough to keep us busy, but it's not overwhelming.   And that gives us time to just spend together, reflecting on this time of year.  Reflecting on the miracle that Jesus' birth and life and death really was for us.  When I think on my new baby nephew, tiny and perfect, I can't help but think that Jesus was exactly like him.  A tiny, helpless babe, who was born with the weight of all the world on his shoulders.

I am so thankful this Christmas season.  I'm thankful for God's provision and for the new things that He is showing me each and every day.  As I look around at the newly fallen snow, it speaks to me, it tells me all kinds of things about  the goodness of the God who said to the snow "fall on the earth".  Mostly though, I'm thankful for the miracle of Jesus, that He came so that we could live the abundant life in Him.  And I'm thankful that He was so willing, because of love.  Had He not had love, it would have been a great burden for Him, but He lived a life that was an example for all of us, and did it more than willingly, because He so loved each and every one of us.

Happy Snow Day!