As I write this, the first snow of the season is falling outside and it looks like a big storm. Already on Facebook and in the days prior to this storm, the complaining about the snow began. Complaining about the cold, the need to shovel, how early it is, everything. And I can frankly see all those points. I might even agree with all those points! However, something interesting occurred as I was shoveling this morning (the first of many in the coming 24 hours and throughout the winter). A thought popped into my head (I know, always dangerous). The thought was this: it is beautiful.
Just that thought. It kind of surprised me, that thought. And it bore another thought: in everything that we think is bad or awful, there just might be something good located there too. The snow is a pain, no doubt, but there is beauty in it too. There are kids rejoicing because they got off school today. There is the joy that comes with making snowmen or skiing or having a snowball fight. There are often beauty and positive things that can often be found in almost everything.
Look at the beat down the Packers gave my Bears last night. It might have been the worst football performance I have seen my team play in the history of my lifetime. Yet, while that was going on, I was able to write my sermon for Sunday, put away laundry, get some reading done, AND, due to Mason Crosby, able to win my fantasy football game this week. So even in the midst of that destruction, good things came from it.
The world would love us to look at our own lives and our experiences in a “negative” first light. To always see the bad instead of the good. But our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ calls us to look at the good in the world, to look at the beauty and the light in the midst of the difficult and darkness. Because Christ has set us free from all things, we can see the blessings even in the midst of the sorrow, the hope in the midst of despair, the good in the midst of the bad; to see the beauty in the midst of the storm.
As children of God, saved and redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can look at the world, and our own lives, with the eyes of Christ, eyes that see hope, love, beauty, and most of all, God, in all things. It may be snowing, and that may be really annoying, but it is also beautiful. And for that we can say, “Thanks be to God!” Amen.