With the proper mix of wind and rain (or air and moisture droplets for your poetic license killing meteorologists) births us a snowflake. Unique in shape…none like it…yet like any other snowflake. Born is same fashion as the rest, frail. Can you be uniquely different while quite similar? You drift from above, falling gently among other snowflakes…you are not alone. Others like you are surrounding while not always connecting, you can acknowledge that you belong to the same change in the weather…seasonal change or stormy mess.
There is something beautiful about falling snow…catching it on your tongue…seeing it collect on the ground. And I must admit…as much as a hassle as it is the deeper the better.
Psalm 139:13-16
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
When the snowflakes fall, they are joined by other flakes…they connect almost magnetically to form a, well…a blanket of snow. No longer just individual snowflakes but now a group connected, as one.
I love walking outside in the dark of the night with simply the light of the moon making its ways through the falling flakes and through the white coated trees…reflecting the light on the top layer. Sheer magnificent beauty…a beauty that one flake left to itself could not achieve. I won’t even mention in too much detail the “force to reckon with” that a compacted ball of snow can have defeated an enemy…ha. What about building a snow fort? Gathering mounds of snow can ward off an impending attack. Try doing that with only flakes drifting down. There is power in the gathering…the cohesion. And should I mention our friend the snowman? Not Frosty…no. A snowman that is just a snowman because of gathered snow. Millions of flakes…rolled into different balls that when stacked together form a body…one ball contains certain parts, the eyes, the mouth…another other parts, the arms…the last, still more, like the feet…BUT one body melding as one body. To me, that is magical in and of itself…I can almost imagine life springing from that snowman.
What about waking up and going outside after a snowstorm…when you must shovel. There is something about all that snow that is practically blinding. It could be a bitterly cold day but when the sun reflects on the snow you need sunglasses its so bright.
As with most good things it comes to an end…the snow melts…the puddle spreads out in all; directions…and it is gone…
Or is it??
While the snow seems to have melted away it is not done…winter snows melt and absorbed into winter hard ground. As it melts the flakes now water goes deep into the ground…it cradles flower bulbs, it nourishes the weary roots of trees and grass. Just when you thought the flakes have finished their job, we see the hidden benefit…the potential of the flake…the long-term calling of the flake…in dying to itself we see new life…
(oh you knew I was going to go there, right?????)
WE (oh in a way I hate saying this) are FLAKES…yeah, we are a bunch of spiritual flakes. But in a good way…well, I hope in a good way…let’s do this…lets parallel this…
When we are given new life in Christ often it is out of the storms in our lives. We are breathed into with life and filled with the Holy Spirit through tears of repentance for our sins and belief in Christ. We are unique individuals, yet now the same under the blood of Christ. You see others like you. Do you see them? It’s beautiful to watch other Christians growing…doing their thing…being them…yet, like you. People cross our lives at different points, seasons of life or even the storms in our lives.
But then there is something amazing that happens when you join together…unplanned drifts that meet up along the way. There is a cohesion of lives and souls to make a blanket or one body. Yeah, and together we can form a fortress of protection when we gather…we call that…the church…or fellowship. There is a certain measure of protection a gathered group of saints affords that as individuals have a hard time doing alone. Can you imagine the “impact” a balled-up group of believers can have that is “sent out” from this group??? Protection from the enemy AND going out from this fellowship to have an impact in the world. WOW…
What about that snowman??? OH, the snowman…
WE are the body of Christ…we each have our own part in the body…and yes, there are different body segments. You may be the arm in your body and someone the foot in theirs. Millions of us joined as the universal church for the complete church body. (I will not get into discussing/arguing faulty doctrines of some churches or denominations, I am referencing the true church of Christ for this application) Each “flake” has its position in this body.
When the Son reflects on us as we gather it can and should be blinding…it should be almost unbearable to try and look upon because of the intensity of the Son’s reflection. The world should notice upon waking after a storm that there is a light…and while they may need to shade themselves, they can bask in the warmth of the Son now shining on their lives because of the reflection in your life of Christ.
Ephesians 4:4-7, 15-16
For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all. However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.
Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
And sadly, there is a time when our lives have completed those journeys, and we are called home…our job is done…
Or is it??
As your life is completed here on earth have you ever thought that that might not be it? Maybe, just maybe your life while finished here on earth has broken though someone’s hardened heart and has become the water that slowly seeped into and around the seeds planted?? That you’ve nourished weakened roots or helped feed a seed that
in Spring will burst though the now softened soil to bring beauty and new life? The things we have done for Christ will continue to spread…ripples of our lives…
Yeah, and you thought they were only snowflakes…and you thought you were only one person…let it snow let it snow let it snow! What has God fore-casted for you?
In Him,
Pastor Steve