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| The Manse after the first 'light' snow fall last week - more - much more was to follow! |
All the talk this week has been about the snow!
It looks so beautiful – I tell myself that every morning as I draw the bedroom curtains. Even after a whole week since its arrival much of the snow still looks in crisp pristine condition. It has transformed our neighbourhood with a sort of magic – perhaps because the light seems so different when snow is on the ground.
But before I become too lyrical it has to be said that in terms of travelling this episode of winter has been something of a disaster. Last weekend I ‘stayed put’ and abandoned plans to travel down to Somerset because the prospect of getting snowed up en route at Stonehenge isn’t great! So the car has had a week long sabbatical in the garage and that’s meant walking everywhere – and the strange thing is that when the paths are crunchy with snow and slippery with ice people seem to talk to each other as they walk – usual inhibitions are put to one side!
It’s struck me, however, just how resilient some folk are. I, for one, wouldn’t blame anyone for staying at home keeping safe instead of coming to church last Sunday – yet half the congregation turned up! Over sixty of us gathered. The same was true of our Church Meeting last evening – reduced in number but ‘quorate’ nevertheless.
Of course you can talk too much about snow. I remember the time I did that during a sermon after a hard week of everyday snowfall. I banged on about snow and took it as the sermon’s theme. The truth was that the congregation had had enough of the stuff and it was the very last thing they wanted to think about in church that day. So you can be topical in sermons – but sometimes it’s best not to be!
This year it feels, perhaps, that the snow has fallen a month late – more appropriate at a time of carols and mistletoe. It reminds me of that line from the Narnian story ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ describing the land under the control of the white witch as being ‘always winter – but never Christmas’.
There are, of course, just a few references to snow in The Bible. Passages talking about forgiveness describing our sins being turned as ‘white as snow’; or descriptions of dazzling heavenly beings using the same terminology.
And, apparently, it does snow in Israel – every year on the Golan Heights.
But if I’m honest the lesson I’ve learnt this week isn’t so much from the bible as from people. It’s been just great to see how folk have kept going with such cheerfulness. At Amersham Free Church people have gone the ‘extra mile’ to maintain the programme and I’m very grateful for all their efforts.
But...I’m SO looking forward to Saturday when the forecast is for rain and a ‘tropical’ 5 degrees celsius!
Best wishes,
It looks so beautiful – I tell myself that every morning as I draw the bedroom curtains. Even after a whole week since its arrival much of the snow still looks in crisp pristine condition. It has transformed our neighbourhood with a sort of magic – perhaps because the light seems so different when snow is on the ground.
But before I become too lyrical it has to be said that in terms of travelling this episode of winter has been something of a disaster. Last weekend I ‘stayed put’ and abandoned plans to travel down to Somerset because the prospect of getting snowed up en route at Stonehenge isn’t great! So the car has had a week long sabbatical in the garage and that’s meant walking everywhere – and the strange thing is that when the paths are crunchy with snow and slippery with ice people seem to talk to each other as they walk – usual inhibitions are put to one side!
It’s struck me, however, just how resilient some folk are. I, for one, wouldn’t blame anyone for staying at home keeping safe instead of coming to church last Sunday – yet half the congregation turned up! Over sixty of us gathered. The same was true of our Church Meeting last evening – reduced in number but ‘quorate’ nevertheless.
Of course you can talk too much about snow. I remember the time I did that during a sermon after a hard week of everyday snowfall. I banged on about snow and took it as the sermon’s theme. The truth was that the congregation had had enough of the stuff and it was the very last thing they wanted to think about in church that day. So you can be topical in sermons – but sometimes it’s best not to be!
This year it feels, perhaps, that the snow has fallen a month late – more appropriate at a time of carols and mistletoe. It reminds me of that line from the Narnian story ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ describing the land under the control of the white witch as being ‘always winter – but never Christmas’.
There are, of course, just a few references to snow in The Bible. Passages talking about forgiveness describing our sins being turned as ‘white as snow’; or descriptions of dazzling heavenly beings using the same terminology.
And, apparently, it does snow in Israel – every year on the Golan Heights.
But if I’m honest the lesson I’ve learnt this week isn’t so much from the bible as from people. It’s been just great to see how folk have kept going with such cheerfulness. At Amersham Free Church people have gone the ‘extra mile’ to maintain the programme and I’m very grateful for all their efforts.
But...I’m SO looking forward to Saturday when the forecast is for rain and a ‘tropical’ 5 degrees celsius!
Best wishes,
Ian
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