Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Why, Why, Why? A meditation on snow in April.

It's mid-April. Spring is here. That means one thing - snow! Yes, snow!
A few days ago, we got hit with six inches of snow (at least). The good thing about April is that it melts away reasonably quickly. It is almost gone already.

When my daughter, Kathy, came out in the morning, she stopped and stared out the living room window, and simply uttered the words "Why, why, why?" Since I was sitting nearby and no one else could hear her, I assumed she was talking to me. (Although, she did look like she was crying out into the great beyond). My answer was "Because God is good, and wise, and loves you so." I'm not sure she was awake enough to take it all in, or was in the state of mind to immediately rejoice in the Lord. But, I wasn't being sarcastic.

A favourite passage of mine in Psalm 127 reads "God gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; who can stand before His cold?" (see verses 16 and 17). Snow is given by God. Snow in April is given by God.

Now, that answers the how, but not necessarily the "Why, why, why?" In Psalm 147, the psalmist is recounting the greatness of God's love and faithfulness towards those that fear Him.
It is a psalm calling out for praise. Verse one declares "Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is becoming (or fitting)."

From there we are told why praise is both pleasant and appropriate and good. "The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds" (vs.2-3). From the perspective of why must it snow in April, I really think that we ought to consider this as an argument from the greater to the lesser. If God gathers the outcasts, and if He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds, can we not begin to imagine that maybe, just maybe, His snow, even when given in April, is an act of mercy and compassion towards his people? Our family knows what it is to be broken-hearted. When the girls' lost their mom to cancer in 2005, we all knew what it felt like to get our hearts crushed. Yet, we are living testimonies to the truth that the Lord does not abandon his people but rather "gathers... heals... and binds up their wounds."

Now, let's take it from another angle. Look up at the night sky. We live about 10 minutes out of the city, and last night when I got home, I had to put the garbage out. (Only a few weeks left probably for us to do that, before that becomes a draw for the bears.) The air was warm (which for us means that it was about 5 degrees celsius or 40 fahrenheit). The sky was dark. You could see every star brilliantly. This psalm declares "He counts the number of stars; He gives names to them all. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite." So what? I don't mean that disrepectfully. It just seems that these words in verse 4-5 can sound a bit out of place. Unless, of course, we realize what the psalmist is saying. If God knows, numbers and personally names 100 to 200 billion stars in 100 to 200 billion galaxies, just maybe, He has the capacity to know, and to personally care for and carry 6 billion people on the face of the planet. Psalm 127:6 and 7 declare "The Lord supports the afflicted; He brings down the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre, who covers the heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the mountains."

Now, I could continue to go verse by verse through the psalm and show you why praise is both pleasing and appropriate. Let me just summarize by saying the following. When the psalmist describes God giving "snow like wool", it is in the context of telling us how God blesses His people and cares for them personally and carries them through life's best and most difficult moments. Therefore, when we see the snow falling in April after a long winter, we ought to marvel that God knows so much more than us and cares so deeply and personally for His people, that He will give us what we need, even when we don't realize we need it, and even when we wouldn't choose to have His blessing.

In the final words of the psalm, the psalmist expresses wonder and amazement when he declares "He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the Lord." We ought to thank God that He has revealed Himself and His ways to us... so that we can have perspective during April snowfalls and even during the more serious stormy seasons of life. (By the way, in verse 18, God makes the snow to melt, as well.)

Praise the Lord!