New Years: A New Clarity of Mission

Now is the chance to look at where you have been, a dangerous clifftop shrouded in fog, and see where God has brought you this year. The change may have been gradual, and hard to believe, and scary, but the ending is a morning of fleeing shadows and blossoming sunshine-- a winter morning all the same, but the best possible... the future is before you, a gift.

As you enter upon a new year, let it be with an earnest resolve to have your course onward and upward. Let your life be more elevated and exalted than it has hitherto been. . . . Aim to honor God in everything, always and everywhere. Carry your religion into everything.

-Ellen White

Muse no longer on the snowflakes filling up your hood or the cliffs with seemingly no end, ragged and brutal and cold. Even as we speak the Wind is moving, guiding the mist away as you have the faith to believe He can do it. And there it is before you, a clean plain of snow, awake and ready to be blessed by fresh tracks.

More Snow

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow...
-Christina Rossetti

Arabian snow- slightly yellow
with freckles

My little horse must think it queer
to stop without a farmhouse near...
-Robert Frost

Tamaracks in their winter best:
white instead of green or gold

Cheery: A little yellow house

In a Word

Very cold here, rather below zero but
Every minute of it invigorating and delightful,
Refreshing to the core.
Most snowy here, rather two feet of it
On the ground and trees and roof... and me,
Not respecting personhood but covering all,
Touching even the sky with a hint of falling gray.

Tiny Matters

Think about snow for a moment; each flake a design that might fit on a pinhead, each cold little piece of precipitation an extravagant scrap of lace formed around a grain of sand. Just one tiny speck of dirt is necessary to form that jot of pure white, and likewise each intricate snowflake is needed to create what we call a snowstorm, the falling of these many small pieces of wonder onto our earth. With that in mind, try to imagine the numbers accumulated in two feet of fluff, attempt to wrap your mind around the sheer immensity held in such a flurry of creativity.

Lafayette- November 24, 2007

Frosted with an edging of snow, living trees, hikers,
and inanimate signposts alike seem to be soaking up
the sunshine of azure sky. Chilly? Let the wind warm
you with its power. Tired? Let the mountains inspire
you with their immovability. In need of sustenance?
Forget the cold food and icy water in your backpack:
Taste the blue, and the white, and the freedom.