Snow

Snow is my favorite form of H2O. Not that I have anything against water, ice, steam, or fog - each is valuable and appropriate to its place and season. But there is just something about snow, something about the soft playful descent of unique flakes, the semi-random patterns of gathering on the ground, the way it highlights trees and shrubs, the beautiful blankets it makes on rolling hills - it quiets my soul, and stirs a peaceful joy within. Perhaps most of all, I am in awe of the simple way that snow conveys lightness and warmth, in a season marked by cold and darkness.

It is just like God, part of his unique artistry, to bring random flakes of grace from unseen places on high, dancing down into a world braced for long nights and shivering days. God has a way of stirring our hopes and warming our hearts, with the simplest of gifts, given in unique form. Perhaps your grace, and your love, like God's, takes a variety of forms, in diverse times and seasons, bringing simple smiles and deep reminders of happiness to people all around you.

It also strikes me that snowflakes, like people, are known for their uniqueness, the distinctive patterns of shapes that make each flake interesting on it's own. But in the combined effect of many many flakes, gathered together, each flake seems to lose its distinctiveness, blended in to a surprisingly beautiful blanket of comfort and tranquility.

If you'll excuse the word choice, the church at its best is a gathering of distinctive flakes, each unique and interesting in its own right, but blended together into a beautiful fabric of shared grace, generous comfort, and deep remarkable joy.

May the peace of Christmas, and the love of Christ, shower tranquility and warm comfort into your season. And may you gather often with other flakes, caught up in blankets of transcendent joy.

Merry Christmas.

-- Brother Tom