Winter Storms

We're away from home, a long away.  Warm, rainy, no snow, no cold.  At home it is snowing, blowing and cold.  Our adult daughter is at home, going to and from work in the snow.  She's looking after the house and having to shovel snow morning and night to keep up with it.  To be honest, I would rather be home, enjoying the skiing, even shovelling the snow.  I love snow.

Okay, so I’m a bit strange, loving snow and cold.  But I do.  Everyone’s different and I am a winter lover.  I am one of those people who tolerate summer but live for winter.  There are a few of us around!  Others want a nice, sunny, warm winter vacation in the tropics.  I want a nice, snowy winter vacation at a ski resort.  If I have to go to the tropics, let it be in May or June. 

Right now work has taken me a long way south, but at home it is freezing cold.  I feel for our daughter who is shovelling snow, driving in deep snow and suffering in frigid temperatures.  I am a bit concerned for her and for our house.  We live in a place where it doesn’t usually get very cold so the house isn’t as well insulated as are homes in other parts of Canada.  I’m thousands of kilometres away so all I can do is leave everything in the hands of my wonderful Lord.  What a great place to leave all my cares and concerns.

A Christmas Cold

I have a Christmas Cold.  No, I’m not cold because it is cold outside, I have a cold.  A terrible cold.  My throat is sore and my nose is running.  I imagine I am not very fun to be around right now.  But I’ll get through it.  Lots of hot tea, lots of juice, some chicken soup.  I’ve had them all during the last few days.  I’ll be fine by Christmas Day, but right now I don’t feel very joyous.

I usually am joyous at this time of year.  Christmas is a time of joy for Christians.  We celebrate the birth of Jesus our Saviour.  We pause and remember His birth, His life and His sacrificial death on the cross to make atonement for our sins.  The actual word for what Jesus did for us is “propitiation” but that doesn’t seem to show up in many modern translations of the Bible.  But it is a great word.  Look it up in a dictionary and see for yourself.

Our family celebrates Christmas.  The real Christmas, the birth of Jesus.  We buy presents for each other, we put up a Christmas tree, we have family dinners, we go to Christmas parties, but we make sure the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t get lost in all the activity.  It’s Jesus’ birthday.

Merry Christmas.  Let Jesus be the star who shines in your life.

I Like It Rainy

We all have our personal likes and dislikes.  That goes for food or hobbies or weather.  During the winter, the ski season, I like nothing better than to have wonderful, cold, wet, rainy weather here where we live.  I love nice, cold rain because I know that means lots of wonderful snow an hour and a half away where we ski.  My friends want nice, sunny winter weather but I want cold rain.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the sun, but I want nice deep powder snow for skiing which means I need cool rainy weather where we live. 

Life is full of choices, options, decisions.  We often have to choose between having one thing or another.  We have only so much money so we can’t have everything we want.  We have to prioritize our desires.  Some of my friends want to eat out at restaurants a lot.  That’s fine, but it means they won’t have money to spend on other things.  Some like to buy lots of music.  Again, that’s fine, as long as they realize there are other things they won’t be able to do because their money is taken by music.  We have friends who save now so they can buy something big latter.  Other friends spend very little, choosing instead to save everything for their retirement.  Some people tell me they won’t consider Jesus, won’t consider asking Him to be their Saviour, because it will change the way they live and they’re happy as they are.  These friends are making a decision for the present which will drastically affect their future, their eternal future, but they are free to make that decision.

Life is full of decisions, but some decisions have eternal consequences.  We need to make our life decisions carefully.  They need to be good decisions for both now and eternity.

Taking Care of the Earth

I believe that Sovereign God created the earth and all that lives on it.  He made it all and all of it is His.  We who live on the earth therefore have a special responsibility to care for what God has created.  We must treat the earth carefully, we must look after it, we must be caretakers of this planet.  Unfortunately the earth isn’t being cared for very well and often some of those who seem to be most against careful environmental practices are Christians, the people who follow God, follow the Bible and seek to obey all that is written in it’s pages.

So what are we supposed to do?  Do we need to become militant environmentalists?  Do we need to protest against global warming?  What should I do?  I think the very least I should be doing as a Christian is to make sure that I don’t pollute the earth.  I need to be as good an environmental steward as I can, even if it costs a bit more to live that way.  If all of humanity truly cared for the earth we would not be talking about global warming.  It wouldn’t be an issue because we would be living in such a way as to minimize our effect upon the earth. 

I believe the Bible.  I believe God made the earth and since it is His creation I need to care for it.  I need to glorify God by my life and one way I do that is to honour Him and His creation.  One way I honour God is by not polluting or harming what He has made.