With the last big snow fall, I remember dreading its arrival as the weather forecasters were offering their predictions and cautions. Indeed, as the snows started to fall that day, they arrived with steady force and piled up quickly. I did my best to shovel what I could, but it continued into the evening, long after I went to sleep. When I awoke the next morning, I only thought of all the challenges that lay ahead.
Reluctantly, I began my day in the usual way and did my best to ignore the scene outside the window, for it would only remind me of the added burdens of an already too long to-do list. But when I stepped outside, the snow had stopped falling, mostly, and the world was gloriously bright. And even though the walkway was covered deep, everything looked as if draped in a brilliant blanket.
The branches of the trees, the railings, and fences, even the wires strung overhead, all had inches of flakes piled high. The visuals were spectacular, and the stillness concentrated my thoughts, away from the day’s troubles, and to somewhere else altogether. To a place of quiet beauty. And then after the brief escape, to return once more to the responsibilities of the day.
I think I have a sense of what inspired the poet Robert Frost in 1922…
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
Robert Frost, Poetry Foundation
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
May God’s hope embrace you this day. -Pastor Peter
Let us pray… God of the snowy woods and horses that carry their riders through them, help us to find a pause amongst the promises we are to keep, and take in the beauty of what you have created. Refresh us before we return. Amen.