Saturday, February 13, 2010

It actually looks like winter!

I have lived in Dallas for 8.5 years now. Typically the "winters" here have been what, for most of my life, was fall/spring weather: highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's...and here in Texas it's accompanied by beautiful blue skies and very little precipitation.

This past week, though, we actually had true winter weather here in Dallas. We received the most significant snowfall (8-13" depending on where you lived in the city) since 1964. It was beautiful and I tried to capture some of it on film.

Here is the view from my 6th floor area at The Company after all the snow was done falling.

This picture shows the only problem with the snow--these power lines in Dallas are (for where I live and work) above ground and NOT designed to be laden with wet, heavy snow...hence lots of power outages.



By far the more exquisite beauty is the trees...though even that caused problems because the snow was so heavy that it caused lots of tree limbs/whole trees to fall and it's always sad to me to see trees damaged.



The snow fell all day during the day on Thursday (2/11). This lady's car shows the total accumulation as she didn't leave between when the snow started and when it stopped Friday morning (2/12):



This is my car "Petey" (my horribly un-inventive name for the PT Cruiser)...he had only the accumulation from 3:00 p.m. Thursday to Friday morning...which was about half the total. He was having Deja Vu from his baby years in OH where he lived the first 4.5 years of his life. Then, though, he had the privilege of living in a garage, so it's likely that this is the heaviest blanket of snow Petey has ever had on him in his 7.5 years.


Here are some bushes near my apartment showing all the snow we received:


Here is my "patio" (6x3 ft fenced cement slab) with the snow on top...it made me smile):


Trees outside my front door beautifully covered in white brilliance:



The kids here have never seen snow like this and I'm certain they thoroughly enjoyed making this "cowboy" version of a snowman:

Here's the view from my front door when I got home from work (shockingly we were let out at 3:00!) on Thursday- notice the huge, beautiful flakes:

Alas, as I type this, the snow is gone/going...it's dripping and melting and dirty and wet and generally ugly now where the breath-taking beauty was just 30 hours ago.

But it was a great reminder of what winter has always been to me. Growing up in OH (0-21 yrs old) and then living in MI (22-28 yrs old), I saw my fair share of snow. I did notice (not to be critical, just sayin') that kids here don't really know HOW to make snowpeople. You see, they haven't had enough (or any) experience with the white stuff to know you ROLL the balls that make up the snowpeople's bodies. The kids/adults here just piled the snow together and tried to make it look like balls. Silly folks--all of us that know snowpeople know you have to roll the balls...hence why many of my brothers and my snowpeople growing up had leaves and mud in them from rolling the ball on the grass before assembling the body. Several times I remember having to have my Dad lift the snowballs to form the body because we had gotten a little over-zealous and by the time the ball was formed, it was too heavy for us kids to lift! That was back before (maybe this didn't help any) my Dad had back problems!

I think my favorite thing about snow, as I said in this post, is that it reminds me of God's redemptive grace and how the Bible says my heart is snow-white after Christ's blood cleanses me. The other miraculous thing is that snow falls in silence. And the wonder that falls over you when you see what happened since you last looked outside is a feeling that I think I need to experience more.

I need to experience the wonder of Christ's love. I need to open my heart to His cleansing, His forgiveness, and remember that each day living in the shadow of His grace should fill me with much more wonder than a Dallas snowfall. I admit I've been in a bit of a "funk" lately and it's due to my own sinfulness and neglect for my quiet time with the Lord. Why oh why oh why do I choose to watch TV or read a book or do anything other than spending time with the One that loves me far more than any Valentine ever could? Is it any wonder I've been lost in a pity party due to another Valentine's season going by without being loved by a man? My eyes have been focusing on the wrong thing.

Living in the shadow of God's pure love (as the purity of white snow reminds me) should fill me with a transcendent wonder and awe and hunger for His truth and His plans for me, not what I might wish was true. He does know best, and the same Almighty Creator that causes the beauty of snowfall is also my tender Shepherd that longs (if I will but let Him) to cause beauty to rise from my "ashes".

So this is my resolve -this weekend as the eHarmony and Match.com and Chemistry.com commericals and Hallmark movies play, I will choose not to focus on being single still/again, but on the Love that knows no comparison on earth--a love that has cleansed and continues to cleanse my wayward heart until it is as pure as fresh-fallen snow. Oh how He loves you and me!!!

1 comment:

  1. I need to send you a link to a great post- remind me. It's snowing here, today, toO!

    ReplyDelete