Baby, It's Cold Outside

The low tonight is 19 degrees.  That is low considering two days ago, I was sitting around a bonfire in my backyard in beautiful 60 degree weather.  Feeling the cold makes me remember back to my seminary days.  My last year at Columbia, there was a big snowstorm.  Ok ok, so it was a big snowstorm for Decatur, but still.  It was snowing enough for the Atlanta airport to close down because there was no way to remove the ice from the runway.  Lots of us seminarians - young and old - came outside to play in the snow.  We made snow angels and caught snowflakes in our mouths.  We had snowball fights and made make-shift sleds to ride down the hill in The Village.  My favorite part was walking with friends to our professors' homes to built giant snowfriends in their front yards and then knocking on their doors and surprising them with our creations.  I always loved how our professors lived walking distance from the campus and often invited us into their homes.  One of our professors came out of her home with a shirt on that had a manger scene on it and said, "It's a GIRL!"  I really, really loved our professors.

The top of my blog says 'Seasonal Grace' and has a picture of snow.  May seem a little odd for a Florida girl.  But I didn't randomly google this image or find it on a website.  This picture was actually taken in the front yard of Rodger Nishioka's house, a professor of Christian Education at Columbia.  We built a big snowfriend in his driveway that blocked his car in the car port.  As we stood in his front yard, I remember looking at the trees and being amazed how different they looked from trees I had always known in Florida.  They had no leaves and therefore were bare, and yet they looked so full of life.  I just loved the way the snow rested on the tree limbs as if the limbs were some kind of holding place for nature to rest.  It is a beautiful glimpse of God's grace.  I thought I would share this story with you on this chilly night.  As the weather continues dropping into the night, may you feel the gift of love...the warmth of friendship...and the joy of a God who gives us such beauty in every season of creation.