powdery earth below, white heavens above

Snow always puts me in a contemplative mood.

I think it's because snow is both incredibly frightening but oh, so beautiful.

Snow has both the power to destroy and to cover over, to bring to ruin and to create beauty. It is, I think, one of God's most ironic creations.

It has been snowing since late last night; the flakes floating fat past my windows in a fluttery, almost divine sort of dance. It has steadily gotten heavier over the day, accumulating to about 4 inches or so beneath my windowsill.

Inside my warm apartment, I was curled up in a candy-cane striped blanket, so completely captivated by the snowfall, but I had to walk outside for a moment. It's funny how quiet and still everything gets when it's snowing.

It's almost like the whole world is pausing to take a breath; silence unbroken except for that of a few children running and crunching the snow beneath their boots...shrieking now and again in the new found joy of their arctic afternoon.

Powdery earth, white heavens, the flakes fall down from open skies, released by an unseen Hand.

Amongst the silvery trees outside my back balcony, 8 cardinals fluttered and flapped, a glorious riot of color on this white afternoon.

It's in the quiet, in the stillness, in the silence that the whispers of God can be heard. He's not found in the earthquake. He's not found in the fire. He's not found in the rushing winds. He's found in the silence.

But sometimes I wonder if He likes to hang out in the snow.