With the proper mix of air and moisture droplets births us a snowflake. Unique in shape, none like it…yet actually like any other snowflake. Born in 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.
There is something beautiful about falling snow, catching it on your tongue, seeing it collect on the ground. And I have to admit as much as a hassle as it is to shovel, the deeper the better. When the snowflakes falls 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 defeating an enemy. Try doing that with only flakes drifting down. There is power in the gathering…the cohesion. And should I mention our friend the snowman? 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 creative 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 have to 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 go 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.
WE are FLAKES…yep, we are a bunch of spiritual flakes. But I mean that in a good way.
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.
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. Together we can form a fortress of protection when we gather together…we call that…the church. 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? 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. 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.
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 through 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 through 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.
And you thought they were only snowflake and you thought you were only one person…let it snow let it snow let it snow! What has God fore-casted for you?
Ephesians 4:4-7, 15-16
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
15 But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Pastor Steve