Holy Precipitation

It is snowing. First snow of the season. Big gooshy happy harmless puppies of snowflakes dancing down from the sky.

As the children and I left the house this morning, we saw approximately five flakes. My son began to dance. My two year old daughter used her newly acquired sentence formation skills to holler, "I get to put the nose on the snowman!!!" She repeated herself a few times in case someone in a ten mile radius hadn't heard the news.

I had a staff meeting and the religious education director looked out the window, smiled and said, "Should we cancel Sunday services?" Yes, it is still Wednesday and the temp. should reach 65 degrees by Sunday, but I told her I would consider it.

Now the church is empty. The snow is sticking to the grass more than when I took this picture 20 minutes ago. The sky is dark. The snow is steady. I've opened the window a little so I can feel the snow breeze. It is very quiet because I am at the "country" church today and in between appointments.

When I dreamed of becoming a minister, this is what I imagined. Quiet snowy days of thinking about life and being grateful. I think that's happened half a dozen times in the 13 years I've been working this holy gig. The job is mostly people, not much quiet snow. I often like it that way, but today, today is something different.

Sloshy snow. Silence. Gratitude. And because I've become the people minister, not the quiet snow minister, I thought I'd share it with you.

Brrrr. I just went outside to take this one for you. Thanks for joining me.