“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan’ Earth stood hard as iron, water
like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on
snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago.” Christina Rossetti’s poem inspired a beautiful Christmas carol
and offers one perspective on the winter months. Today, however, I woke to a day filled with another perspective. The world was covered in magic. As I drank my morning coffee, I looked out the window at the sparking white crystals that spun in the wind. A closer look showed me how little snow had really fallen. It was the wind that created the masterpiece, the sparkling, changing drifts that made everything beautiful. A short time later, I heard my almost-5-year-old grandson’s “WOW!” as he looked out the window on the landing.
It wasn’t long before he was standing before me with bright pink cheeks and a big smile…dripping water all over the living
room floor from his soggy snow pants. I didn’t even need to look to know that there was a snow angel just his size in the middle of the front yard. Bleak midwinter? I don’t think so! How much difference our
perspective, our attitude makes! Yes, the wind was frosty and moaning, but it also took just a couple inches of snow and transformed the world. The earth was hard as iron, but only to cool the crocus and hyacinth bulbs that need to know winter before they bloom again in the spring. Snow had fallen, and an angel appeared
in my yard. “Water like a stone”? In a hockey area like Western New York, do I even have to say anything? One of the greatest gifts of the Christian life is that of hope. We know that everything comes
from a God who loves us, who only seeks to draw us closer. With gratitude-filled hearts, we can look at the world around us through the eyes of a child to see only joyful possibilities. As we come from the season of celebrating our Lord as a little baby, we are gifted with the hope that allows us to follow him, to learn from him, to live our lives
by his example. God’s spirit that moved over the face of the earth in the beginning
is called “Ruach”, the Heever

Pastor Linda Harle-Mould