I got up a little after 5:00 a.m. yesterday to take my walk and the weather was beautiful. The temperature was about 40 degrees. The breeze was practically non-existent. I found myself over-dressed, even with my light-weight gloves. And, by the time I was showered and in my car, the colors of the eastern sky were gorgeous.
My morning included attending the Mike Dolan hosted FHL gathering, some Bible reading time and visits to a hospital and Beechwood Manor. Driving home on I-94 around 9:30 I ran into a “not quite torrential” downpour, followed by a rerouting around an accident on top of Metro Parkway, and then basically dry roads afterwards. Looking out our living room window an hour or two later I viewed snow flying everywhere. The temperature had dropped to the mid or lower 20’s and ice covered our driveway.
Welcome to January in the D!
While our state motto is something like “If ever you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you”, many seem to think it is (or should be), “If you don’t like the weather, just wait ten minutes. It will change.” Both were appropriate yesterday. After spending the earliest part of the day enjoying our pleasant peninsula, I was glad to be home before those “ten-minute changes” got nasty.
Again, welcome to January in the D! Yet you and I know that it’s not just January that is like this … and it’s not just in the D, or even just in the state of Michigan. Welcome to life in this world!
Change is a constant. Some changes we welcome … I enjoyed the warmth and thawing of the past week. Some changes we hardly even notice. And some hit us like yesterday’s snow.
Take aging as an example. I welcome the slower pace of life, the nights at home, and the decrease in responsibility. Some of the changes that are easily missed are things like weight gain, muscle atrophy, and an increased peace with God. And I don’t think I need to list the ones that smack us across the face.
Perhaps the reason we often struggle so with change is because it stands in contrast to our God and Redeemer. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is (his) faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3.22-23) Jeremiah then provides sage advice on how to weather the storms of change, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a person that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust – there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever. But, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” (Lamentations 3.25-33)
With these words our Lord would take us from “January in the D” through “Life in this world” and into “Life in the Kingdom of our God … where we have the assurance that “goodness and mercy shall follow (you, me, all God’s children) all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23.6) Or, as Henry Lyte wrote a few centuries ago, “Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes; Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies. Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me”.
January in the D!
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