Tuesday With Teri

It’s here, our first real snow of the season.  No doubt this “snow event”, as our weathermen refer to it as, is the result of thousands of school children praying, donning pajamas inside out and performing the snow dance.  I am conflicted.  Part of me needs to thank them for providing us all with a day to stay home, relax or play.  Another part of me wishes their snow beckoning efforts were not so effective, but that’s just the boring, adult part of me that knows eventually the snow will need to be moved and traveling to work will need to take place.   I do love to watch the snow falling.  It is an amazing equalizer.  Even the thinnest blanket of snow makes every lawn unblemished and radiant.  Unlike Spring, when differing degrees of money and effort result in neighbor to neighbor lawn variations and envy.  When it snows there are no dirty cars or clean cars.  Curbs and driveways are dotted only with globs of white with wheels and windows.   The world changes when this white stuff begins to fall.  One quietly laid coating of snow and already our average Home Depot patio set looks ready for a formal tea, complete with a gorgeous winter lace table cloth.   Long dead garden plants now look like vibrant bouquets of white carnations as the snow piles up on their withered limbs.  The grey, jagged wood of our decking is replaced with a smooth coating of snow.  It reminds me of all the times I have used excessive amounts of icing to cover/fill/even out my often misshapen cakes.  Even our usually unsightly trash can looks softer, less offensive and blended with its surroundings under the cover of snow.  In Psalm 51 David calls out to  God and brings before Him his blemished, withered and broken self.  He is seeking to be forgiven and knows God’s forgiveness will leave him “whiter than snow”.   Through His prophet Isaiah(1:18), God tells us “Though our sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow…”  I like that.  Though we have numerous nicks, scratches and dings in our life, God will forgive us and we too can be “whiter than snow”.    I think we’d all look radiant in the white winter lace now thickening on my patio table!