Lessons From A Snowstorm

My husband just returned home from the Dominican Republic.
He had been there for sixteen days.
He takes a trip like this each year to build homes for people.
He has been all over the world.

He was on a team of fourteen people, eight of whom he had built with before.
Many are retired, like him, and enjoy giving of their time and energy to help others.
The block house was completed in a weeks time.
To the family, their new home was palatial, compared to where they were living before.

He usually stays for additional days to tour around the area.
On this trip, the additional days were at a beach with temperatures in the 80s.
I would never begrudge my husband the additional time away.
However, this trip tested my patience.

During the time he was away, we had four snowstorms.
Still struggling with pain in my hands from a fall in August, I could not shovel.
My wonderful high school neighbor from across the street was put on retainer.
He came and shoveled for me during the two larger snow storms.

The last two snowfalls were much less, but snow still covered the driveway and walkways.
I knew I couldn’t shovel, but I came up with an idea.
I stepped out, during the last two storms, to see that the snow was a fine powder.
I decided to get the leaf blower and blow the snow away.

To my delight, it worked.
A fine mist of snow swirled around me and the blower removed it from the path.
I knew if it had been heavy snow, this method would not have worked.
However, this fine powdered snow easily disappeared.

The sound of the leaf blower reminded me of summer and fall.
It is not a sound you routinely hear in winter.
It did the job amazingly well.
I was pleased.

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?  (Job 38:22,23)

We walk through this life thinking we have everything figured out.
However, if you read God’s word to Job, you will respond as Job does.
You will feel the only response is to put your hand over your mouth.
God’s questions to Job (and to us) have answers that only God can give.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. (Job 38:4)
Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place? (Job 38:12)
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? (Job 38:16)
What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? (Job 38:19)

None of us can answer those questions.
Only God knows the why and the how of things.
We stand speechless before Him.
Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)

Four snowstorms, indeed.
As I felt sorry for myself, God, who created me, supplied my needs.
The young boy across the street was available to help.
God gave me the ingenuity to think outside the box with the leaf blower.

When I told my husband what I had done, he admitted he would never have thought of that.
God, the foundation layer.
God, the morning giver.
God the deep explorer and the light giver.

God who gives us the creativity we need to solve problems at hand.
God who is ever present in our lives in the most nuanced ways.
God who sustained me during sixteen days of a hard winter.
God who is near.