A Pause for Reflection...

There is nothing on earth quite like the joy of a Snow Day.  Your plans are already made; you have places to be and things to do.  But then, suddenly, with one phone call or email or image on the TV screen, time stops.  Classes and events and deadlines are postponed.  God has literally given you the gift of time.  What will you do with it?  Snuggle up with a book and hot chocolate?  Turn off the alarm clock and go back to sleep?  Rush outside to sled and build snowmen and have snowball fights? 

Part of the art of celebrating the Snow Day is to convince your parents that even though the roads are too bad for you to go to school, they are safe enough for your best friend to come over to play!  Or, if you’re willing to roll the dice, you can invite your best friend to spend the night before the snow starts.  ;-)

I think there are some good lessons to be learned from the Snow Day.  First, patience.  It is truly agonizing to attend a school that starts with a “W;” just when you finally think they’re almost done with all of the “Saint” schools, then they cut to a commercial break!  (For the young folks, when I was a student, they apparently did not yet have the technology to keep the list rolling through the commercials.)

Also, Snow Days are a lesson in rest.  God commands us to keep the Sabbath to rest, to worship, and to focus on Him.  I often find myself so concerned with my day to day responsibilities that I don’t take the time to rest as I should.  But on Snow Days, when schedules are suspended, I can truly rest!

Snow Days have been a part of my life for the past 25 years, first as a student, and then as a teacher.  I’ve been blessed to have a job that NEVER required me to work on a Snow Day.  But I realized on Thursday that I might have just celebrated my last Snow Day ever!

I was sad to learn that there does not seem to be an official French term for “Snow Day.”  Even if I do encounter some days in France on which snow interferes with plans, I don’t think it will ever have the same feeling as celebrating them here.

It’s ok; I know God will have plenty of new adventures for me in France.  The Lord has taught me a lot over this past year about the importance of looking forward, rather than looking back (see Thing #7, No More Looking Back).  Still, I’m a sentimental person, and so I felt the need to reminisce for a moment.  

R.I.P. Edward…2/2/2011

"Come now, let's settle this," says the LORD.  "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."  

-Isaiah 1:18