Snow’s Invitation

“The snow won’t last forever,” I had to tell my oldest daughter on Saturday and Sunday as we walked back to the house from some sledding down a hill. We always want things to last forever (or somethings). For my daughter, the emergence and accumulation of the snow on Saturday was long expected and greatly appreciated. She stared out the window on Saturday morning eagerly looking at the sky for any sign of snowflakes falling. Later, about noon, as it came down more consistently, I saw her eyes grow and her head began to fill with excitement about entering into that! And that afternoon we hiked up the hill near our neighborhood’s amenity center, and she took the first of many trips down and up, down and up, and down and up that hill while her heart felt overjoyed and being a part of what God had gifted her.

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As we hiked back at the end, her hands shivering from the cold and wet gloves, she asked if we could do that again tomorrow. I loving looked at her and said, “I hope so, if there’s enough.” I don’t think this thought occurred to her. Of course there was enough snow, it was still coming down. How could there not be? And as we sled on Sunday, because there was enough, I saw that same joy at living life! And once again, she asked on the way home, “Dad, we can do this again tomorrow?” I had to take a deep breath and share, “I don’t think it’ll be here.”

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Life is full of complexities like that. Seemingly like the weather, difficulties and joys and people and friends come into our lives. While we would wish them to stay forever, only God knows how long they will be with us. Perhaps what we can learn is to enter into life fully when it is happening around us: both the good and the troublesome. I think that’s what the author of Ecclesiastes intended when we read chapter 3.
           “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:
                       a time to be born and a time to die;
                       a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted;
                       a time to kill and a time to heal;
                       a time to break down and time to build up;
                       a time to weep and a time to laugh;
                       a time to mourn and a time to dance;
                       a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together;
                       a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
                       a time to seek and a time to lose;
                       a time to keep and a time to throw away;
                       a time to tear and a time to sew;
                       a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
                       a time to love and a time to hate;
                       a time for war and a time for peace.” (v1-8)

While I wish that I could give my daughter, and all of you what we say we want: more time, more people, more money, less stress, less worries, less uncertainties; I know I cannot. What I can declare for us is God’s invitation to join in, get out and play. Or perhaps simply, notice that God is with you inviting you into the crazy things of love, grace, and embrace and life that make our existence so beautiful to do. So, enter in, or go out, or whatever you need to hear God inviting you to enter into the beauty of life! And invite others to do the same! Amen.