It Came to Pass...

For the last two weekends, this area has experienced an ice and a snow storm. Some local communities experienced both during the first weekend. As engaging as it was to see back-to-back winter storms, it was seeing an affirming message that engaged even more.

The forecast for the January 21st - 23rd weekend was quite unsettling. The forecast scenario was a series of dire cause and effects. Because the air and ground temperatures were low enough to cause the rain to freeze, the accumulated water on the trees froze, causing weight on the tree limbs making them snap and fall on adjacent powerlines, causing major power outages, making total electric houses “ice cold” homes.

On Sunday January 23rd, I awakened to what looked like one of those quaint villages seen on Christmas cards. I regret I didn’t respond to the urge to take pictures of the absolute, solitary beauty of the scene.

The reason that is so poignant is by early afternoon almost all the ice had melted, and outside looked as it had when the ice was an unsettling forecast. Fast forward to exactly one week later, we experienced almost a carbon copy of the idyllic Sunday morning like the previous week, except with snow instead of ice. Hmmm

Scenes, not only in movies but also in real life, can change very quickly. What may be idyllic early may be prosaic not much later. So enjoy and savor the scenes of beauty life bring because far too often they are fleeting. In the epic poem Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a segment of a famous line says, “The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on…”

Life tends to move on. However it provides us a positive slant. When that which is not beautiful but harsh, unappealing, even depressing come knocking, know they too are transitory. It is then we are called to remember the moments of beauty, grace, and quiet. They're provided to sustain in the moments of hardship, grief, or pain.

Affirmation: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8