November 17
Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. Psalm 77:19
An early November snowfall always brings with it a feeling of surprise! Maybe it’s the arrival of the air cold enough to support it, maybe it’s that we haven’t wanted to believe the warm days are behind us for a while, maybe it’s the stark beauty of it across the landscape. But outside, in the glistening, pristine snow scene before me, as I pause for a moment in awe of its beauty, I discover a gift, and isn’t a gift always a surprise?
For just a moment there is no concern about the annoyances snow creates - extra clothing for warmth, work to clear it before heading out, no traffic issues or expected delays. For as I look about me, there are more gifts revealed in this remembered place. Simple footprints! Our Maizy’s paw prints perfectly framed in white, looking like the paw print stickers my grandchildren place on the notes and artwork they give me! I want to freeze them; preserve this particular ageless, visible image of her presence! Without this snow they are invisible! Beside hers are mine, one clear, precise and large by comparison, the other chunky, clumsy-looking and distorted from the boot cast worn to help a healing fracture. On closer observation, there too are tiny lines of precise formation, prints made by snow birds – slate juncos, which always arrive on time with the snow! Or are they always there, and I only notice against the backdrop of white? Behind them additional little prints from the tiny feet of our resident chipmunk, who reigns over the yard like a voracious tyrant, the other wildlife deferring to him, seeming to stop and hold their breath with utter respect (or is it disdain!), as he darts back and forth from under the bird feeder to the opening of his home across the yard, squealing at any of them too close for his liking.
How many other “footprints” are invisible until revealed against a backdrop of white? Above all, prints etched in our hearts – loving acts and memories from: loved ones and friends gone before us, those whose uplifting love fills us still, and some from those who never lingered, but touched our souls as they danced across our hearts; breathtaking moments of beauty and enlightenment, contentment and joy! They are all there, felt in the heart only, until revealed by God’s light of pure, glittering, dazzling white. What a surprise when the magnitude of love within them is made known to us in these many, many gifts we have been privileged with – finally visible against the landscape of His love. Oh the utter joy of it!
Oh Lord, you reveal much to us in simple things – your many gifts to us! Some we understand and appreciate, some we aren’t able to yet. Help us to keep our eyes open knowing that all will be revealed in your time.
Copyright© 2014 Kathleen A. Matson
Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. Psalm 77:19
An early November snowfall always brings with it a feeling of surprise! Maybe it’s the arrival of the air cold enough to support it, maybe it’s that we haven’t wanted to believe the warm days are behind us for a while, maybe it’s the stark beauty of it across the landscape. But outside, in the glistening, pristine snow scene before me, as I pause for a moment in awe of its beauty, I discover a gift, and isn’t a gift always a surprise?
For just a moment there is no concern about the annoyances snow creates - extra clothing for warmth, work to clear it before heading out, no traffic issues or expected delays. For as I look about me, there are more gifts revealed in this remembered place. Simple footprints! Our Maizy’s paw prints perfectly framed in white, looking like the paw print stickers my grandchildren place on the notes and artwork they give me! I want to freeze them; preserve this particular ageless, visible image of her presence! Without this snow they are invisible! Beside hers are mine, one clear, precise and large by comparison, the other chunky, clumsy-looking and distorted from the boot cast worn to help a healing fracture. On closer observation, there too are tiny lines of precise formation, prints made by snow birds – slate juncos, which always arrive on time with the snow! Or are they always there, and I only notice against the backdrop of white? Behind them additional little prints from the tiny feet of our resident chipmunk, who reigns over the yard like a voracious tyrant, the other wildlife deferring to him, seeming to stop and hold their breath with utter respect (or is it disdain!), as he darts back and forth from under the bird feeder to the opening of his home across the yard, squealing at any of them too close for his liking.
How many other “footprints” are invisible until revealed against a backdrop of white? Above all, prints etched in our hearts – loving acts and memories from: loved ones and friends gone before us, those whose uplifting love fills us still, and some from those who never lingered, but touched our souls as they danced across our hearts; breathtaking moments of beauty and enlightenment, contentment and joy! They are all there, felt in the heart only, until revealed by God’s light of pure, glittering, dazzling white. What a surprise when the magnitude of love within them is made known to us in these many, many gifts we have been privileged with – finally visible against the landscape of His love. Oh the utter joy of it!
Oh Lord, you reveal much to us in simple things – your many gifts to us! Some we understand and appreciate, some we aren’t able to yet. Help us to keep our eyes open knowing that all will be revealed in your time.
Copyright© 2014 Kathleen A. Matson