Perspective on snow & holidays

Christmas gets us excited for winter. The coming of Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ birth, the chance to take a break and rejoice about being thankful for a year of God’s blessings toward us gets us excited and leaves us feeling hopeful. So, we view the falling snow as a breath of fresh air – a reminder that we should rest, that we should simply be still for a moment and enjoy the hush of quiet that snow brings. We are reminded that our daily to-do list isn’t quite so important and that there are things in this world that can super-cede our constant need to be doing & working. We welcome it because we need a reminder that life goes on even when we rest. We need a reminder that we don’t possess the control over things that we try so hard to command. We need a reminder to stop and look up to heaven. We need the snow to quiet the world so that just maybe we will listen for the still, small voice of God who still calls out to us.

…and then, for the next two months straight, it keeps snowing.

Now, we don’t welcome the snow. We’re tired of it. We’re tired of looking out our window and seeing a mono-chromatic world of gray. We’re tired of being cold. We’re tired of trudging through snow every day and having to step cautiously just in case the freshly fallen snow is hiding a giant sheet of ice. We want to dress up and wear heels. We want to do it and not have to wear 3 layers over top which just wrinkles the dress. We want to do our hair and not have it be ruined by falling snow or the donning of a stocking cap. (Okay, well, that was just written from MY perspective.) We want something look forward to – that reminds of things that are good, true, beautiful and loving in this world – because the present outlook is bleak.

Along comes Valentine’s Day. I know all the complaints against it – it’s commercial, it’s stupid, it’s an excuse for greeting card companies to rake in some more money, it makes your singleness sting worse, it’s just another day with a burden of expectation. But, I look at it as a day to do something specific to remind the person that you care about just how much you do and why. Sometimes, we just need that reminder. We need the extra warmth in the touch of a hand; the gentleness of a kiss; the deep, warm-you-to-your soul feeling of being cherished and knowing it’s real & true.

Maybe we shouldn’t need a day prescribing it because it should just be something we do…but, just maybe, we do.


Those are my thoughts. I like days that give me an excuse to celebrate life and love. It just so happens that on February 14th, I get to do that times two.