Snow. Seriously? First in April? Now in May?
I know it’s Ontario, Canada, but shouldn’t we be out of this?
We complain a bit. Or a lot.
We might even wonder what’s up.
I called my Mom for Mother’s Day and she reminded me that it’s happened before.
She told me back in the day, over 55 years ago when she was dating Dad, she specifically remembered Dad picking her up from the bus stop after work in May and it was snowing.
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I love snow in May.
Not because I love snow; I actually love the heat.
But because it reminds me to celebrate God is in control.
Not a global warming or cooling, not climate change or mankind, nor ‘Mother Nature’.
But God. He is in control. He sends the rain and snow as He wishes. To remind us that He exists, and He reigns.
Our actions can impact our global climate negatively – and positively – but the globe is not warming or cooling ‘out of control’.
And the climate is not changing… out of control.
God remains in control.
There is not a ‘Mother Nature’ who got mixed up.
‘Mother Nature’ is an expression often used when wrestling to explain ‘Something’ larger than ourselves as governing this global climate – this planet that we call home.
‘She’ is something we realize as a natural order… a set of natural laws that are consistent and reliable.
There is not confusion. Only a God in control who reveals Himself through what He does.
Think about it.
We don’t ever wonder if the sun will rise… we trust it will every day – by God’s design of time and seasons put in place with purpose.
We don’t ever wonder if we will stay on the ground as we go about our day; we know we will – by God’s gravity design in place for a purpose.
In His design God also created balance in nature. And care is needed as we live on this planet.
Perhaps we best consider how it is that He wants us to care for this planet and those who live on it.
Often, with our distorted and greedy mentality, we abuse the balance and exploit the earth, knocking things out of balance – like ravaging rain forests or decimating our oceans (two very broad examples among many).
Dialing it back to snow in May, remember:
“The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
Psalm 24:1
And if God desires to radically change climates, he can and does with purpose:
“He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there. He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there He brought the hungry to live, they founded a city where they could settle.”
Psalm 107:33-35
He is mindful of the snow, and where He disperses it, metaphorically pictured as holding snow in ‘store houses’:
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail…..?”
Job 38:22
Again, in the poetic language of Psalm 147:
“He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes………..He sends His word and melts them; He stirs up His breezes, and the waters flow.”
Psalm 147:16-18
When God created this natural world we live in, climate and all, He did so to support all the life that would flow out of what He made. And He still governs it all today. Things are not precariously out of control.
Notice the beauty of the hydrological cycle that appears in this text:
“…rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without first watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater…”
Isaiah 55:10
God has carefully made all things and upholds all things.
So, when it snows in May… whether in 2020, or over 55 years ago, it is a reminder that God is in control.
And that can be of such encouragement. Like God saying to us, “Watch this… I know it’s spring, but I can still make it snow.”
In the crazy world we live in we can use reminders like a simple ‘spring snow’ to remind us we are not alone, and that God still holds the reins.
Be amazed at this God who made everything, cares for it all and who made and cares for us!
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One last reminder about snow. Its whiteness, can depict cleanliness.
Here too, the Bible speaks:
“Come now let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow.”
Isaiah 1:18
In a world gone astray and separated from God, distorted from the original very good condition God had made it, because of the sin of man, God provided the way out by the means of forgiveness of sins and new life in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Sin stains everything. Including every human. It doesn’t take long to see that when we look around.
But through Jesus Christ our sins are washed away and reconnection to the God who made us is available for all who believe in Him.
And snow in May is a vivid reminder that this God is in control, and that in His power He makes available to us a washing to whiteness…a full cleansing, for all who would believe in Jesus, so we can enjoy Him forever.
That’s worth celebrating. That’s a God worth serving.
That’s what snow in May reminds me of.
The Artisan Post 