This morning we woke up to a Winter Wonderland. It has been a long time since I've experienced a "good" snow, so I just had to take pictures. We got somewhere between 2 & 3 inches; everything was covered in a soft, powdery blanket of snow.
I couldn't wait for Courtney to wake up so that she could see it. Of course, today was the day she decided to sleep in. I was afraid it would all melt before she got up. As tempted as I was, and despite several trips to her room, I let her sleep. Much to my delight, there was still plenty of snow for picture taking when she awoke.
I thought Courtney would be delighted to see such a marvelous sight, but she didn't seem very impressed. She was overwhelmed by the brightness of the sun glistening on the snow that now covered what was once a very familiar place. She seemed disoriented to some degree, too- I suppose she was wondering where her backyard went. Not to mention the fact that she had been practically swallowed up by a huge, purple snowsuit.
I let her touch the snow, but she was soon bored and wanted to go back inside. She had taken in and figured out all that she wanted to know within about 2 minutes. Now she was done.
While I completely understood where she was coming from, I was a little disappointed that she didn't realize just how wonderful this morning was. The kid in me wanted to build snowmen, take pictures, and enjoy this rare and beautiful gift... but the kid in my arms just wanted to go back inside.
I suppose it's kind of like the kid in my heart versus the kid in my head. When God gives me a wonderful gift, the kid in my heart wants to enjoy it to the fullest until I've exhausted all of my energy... but the kid in my head wants to over-analyze things to the point that I don't even take delight in what God has given me. It reminds me of an instance in college when a friend approached me with a leaf from a magnolia tree. "Kristi," he said, "Take this leaf and enjoy it. Don't analyze it, don't try to figure it out, and don't apply any special analogy to it... just enjoy it." I couldn't believe he said that. In fact, I had started contemplating an analogy even as he was speaking. Since I respected this person so much (and figured he was trying to teach me something), I did what he asked.
As the leaf accompanied me to my classes, meals, even to church, I began to realize something. I had been taking God's little gifts to the laboratory in my mind, disecting them until there was nothing left to enjoy. I was searching for answers to questions like: Why did God give this to me? What can I learn from this? How can I bless someone else with this?... and all the while each question had the same answer: God is love. Don't get me wrong, those questions are not bad at all- but I was so busy trying to figure out God's blessing that I often ended up missing the blessing itself.
What a great reminder this morning of a lesson I learned so long ago! In the rush of swaddling Courtney in the snowsuit, charging my camera and finding the perfect lighting... well, I confess that I forgot to just sit in awe of God and enjoy the blessing of such a beautiful morning. Now it's all melted, and my pictures just didn't capture the glory of it all. So I encourage all of you, faithful blog readers, to stop and enjoy God's blessings today. They might just melt away before you know it.
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