Snow Days...and days...and days...

It snowed on Sunday night, so I didn't have to go to school Monday or Tuesday! And I didn't have to go today! Reason would suggest that I used my time off to grade some of the essays that have piled up....but I haven't. Instead, two of my friends ventured out in the snow Monday morning to pick me up and drive me to their house where I basically spent 2 days bundled in a blanket, listening to records, and reading on my friends' couch. (There may also have been a little of me running and sliding across my friends' hardwood floors in my fleece socks....)I read Water for Elephants. Aside from some uncomfortable scenes regarding abuse (of both women and animals), it was a great book! I also got to sleep under an electric blanket, which pretty much changed my life, and now I have every intention of buying one. Not a bad start to the week. As soon as we found out school was cancelled today, two of my friends called me with the same basic sentiment--what are we going to do stuck at home for another day??? I had a great many thoughts about what to do with all the extra time, but in reality I'm kind of bored....I've spent the large part of my morning watching episodes of How I Met Your Mother, which you can only do for so long before you start to feel pretty lazy and borderline worthless....

Over the past three days, I have spent a good bit of time looking out the window at the snow. One thing about living in the South is that when it snows, life basically comes to a stop for most people. They stay home and don't really venture out anywhere. As a result, this amazing stillness and peace settles over everything. And the blanket of snow that covers everywhere remains largely undisturbed, giving everything you see a clean, perfect look. This made me thing about Jesus and the verse in Isaiah that says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, thought they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool," and how all the cleanliness, all the perfection, all the peace that the snow brings are things I have in Christ.

The other thing about snow though is that, if you live somewhere--like I do--that isn't prepared to deal with it, it can get rather dangerous. It melts a little and then freezes over and turns into ice, which is slippery and treacherous. I thought about it, and this is kind of like what happens to me. I feel like the longer I have been a believer, the farther away I can get from fully realizing my need for Christ. I only see the beautiful, white snow, and I can forget about the dead grass that's underneath. And I can start to get wrapped up in the snow and how great it is...and start to forget life before the snow. And I, like the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son, start to take credit for the snow and all the beauty it brings. That's when things start to get slippery...and dangerous.

Thankfully, today the sun is out and is melting away the ice that had pretty much taken over everywhere I live. And thankfully, even when I start to get self-righteous, the light of Christ's love still penetrates my heart and reminds me that my snow-covering is there because of Him.