A couple of winters ago, the Pacific Northwest (PNW) was treated to a massive (for the PNW anyway) snowfall. Here in the PNW, life pretty much shuts down for snow, even a half-inch of snow causes interstate highways, normally clogged with stop-and-go traffic, to become eerily lonely. A panicked, fervently delivered weather forecast of snowfall results in packed grocery stores and a feeding frenzy on bags of snow melt salt. 

So when somewhere between 10 and 20 inches of snow fell, it was quite an event, one surely to live on in PNW legend. When we lived in Montana, this was just business as usual. But, such snowfalls, while not unheard of here, are a rarity. Roads were closed rather than plowed. Streets remained empty and grocery store shelves, even at Walmart, were empty of staples like milk, eggs, and bread. The news even reported that a young man visiting from Idaho who happened to bring his snow removal equipment when visiting friends in the area, made over $35,000 in a 24 hour period. Not a bad day’s work. 

After about three days of schlepping through a foot of snow with the dog, a strange thing started to happen. The sun came out (also a winter rarity around these parts), the foot of snow began to melt. I looked forward to walking in the warm rays of the sun. A day later, green grass started poking through the snow. Another day later, the colors were stunning compared to the grey, dingy world only a few days before. 

It struck me that even though this is a fallen world in so many ways, the grace and renewal of God is still all around us. Paul tells us that the things seen are transient, but the things unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4). He also tells us that renewal is a continuous process, that we must renew ourselves each day by meditating on the Word of God. Even though Paul was speaking of renewing the Spirit of God in ourselves, I can’t help but be sure that God provides examples of this renewal in the world if we just look around. When we feel overwhelmed and hopeless, we can take hope in the green grass poking through the snow and know, with absolute certainty, that God is with us every day.