We've been living in a flocked land of white these past four days in the Midwest. A friend and I went for a walk this morning and talked about how the scene is both magnificent, beautiful and unsettling, eery all at the same time. It's a cross between feeling like you're in a winter wonderland one moment to feeling like you're living in Narnia with the icy cold feel of eternal winter all around. One minute I'm driving our country roads rejoicing in a clump of trees that have a gorgeous contrast of black and white (I kind of feel like I'm living in an Ansel Adams poster), and the next moment I feel an unsettledness and eeriness as I drive through pockets of fog and as I notice that the sky and ground have melded together with the same cold greyish hue over the past few days.
It's a good parallel to my daily living. I often live with both gratitude, joy and a sense of burden, unsettledness as I walk out my days as a Christ-follower on this earth. One minute I'm rejoicing in seeing God at work and the next I'm pained with unsettledness as I recognize sin and brokenness in me and around me. Literally and figuratively, I thank God that we will not live in eternal winter, and that our longing for Spring will be fulfilled.
You captured this exactly, Laura. It's pretty, but with the strange stillness, and the grey sky, too, something is missing. It's almost like something has taken the breath out of nature, leaving behind a cloaking. And since I now know this frost is not good for the trees, it makes it all the more chilling. I'm aching for the sun, even if it's cold, and brown branches that I'm certain will spring forth soon.
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