With the heat, there has been a number of pictures of snow circulating Facebook recently warning about complaining of the heat. On a morning back in April there was a fresh snowfall had fallen from the night before, and it covered the driveway and walkways. I remembered pausing the night before as I went into the house and heard the frogs croaking while the snowflakes were falling. I found it rather strange to see and hear those two things happening simultaneously. I had a good laugh at it though.
As I walked out the door that morning, I stepped into the garage and grabbed my shovel to being clearing the fresh snow. It was heavy, heavier than most of our heavy snows. I began first by brushing the snow off the cover of the boat (I had gotten it home but did have room in the garage for it yet). Once that was done, I picked up the shovel and began to push and remove the snow from the driveway.
The next thing I heard was the back door to the house opening & shutting. I assumed that Michelle was letting Patty, our dog, out to go relieve herself. Then the garage door opened, but I didn’t see her silhouette. What I did hear was the sound of small boot steps. My son appeared from behind the SUV. He came running to the driveway with his red shovel in hand. He had his gloves, hat, and coat on but…his coat wasn’t zipped. He still had his pajamas on, and they were up to his knees exposing skin at the tops of his boots. He told me he couldn’t find his snow pants, and he was in such a rush to get outside to help me that he didn’t change clothes or worry about zipping his coat. His snow pants happened to be in the garage so we found them and put them on. And he began to shovel away beside me.
I’m a little different than most people. Even at 33, I still love to shovel snow. I am not sure why. It is just something that I enjoy (unless it is 11”+ deep). My son seems to have inherited that same love of doing it that I have. It goes deeper though than just shoveling snow. He enjoys being with me doing it and helping me out. The same is true of mowing the lawn. The engine starts and he is right there ready to ride. And it thrills my heart to do it with him even though admittedly I can be critical at times that he isn’t doing it the way I would (I’m a bit of a recovering perfectionist). We enjoy working side by side though.
That morning reminded me much of our relationship with God. It begged of me to ask myself: do I crave so much to be with the Father that I run out of the house (figuratively speaking) to be by His side? Do you? We may not have it all together, in our character, in our obedience and that’s okay. We’re clay pots after all still in the molding process. But do we crave every second that can be spent with Him?
If we do, then we shouldn’t be content with sitting on the sidelines or watching through a window but yearning to be actively involved in what He is doing, working alongside Him, enjoying being with Him. That may be clearing a driveway of snow or serving someone in the church or ushering another person to the hope found in the gospel. The possibilities are numerous. There are times to sit as well and just enjoy being in His presence like my son does with me when he climbs on my laps while I’m in the recliner.
Doing we enthusiastically enjoy being with our Father and working alongside Him? I pray we do. That’s what the Christian life is at it’s core afterall…a relationship with Him.