What Brings Us Together
By Pastor Paula Burchill
I love the snow! It reminds me of my childhood, and the forced slow down it gives to all of us has been welcome. I love looking out and seeing how the whole world has been blanketed. Whether I got my garden cleared out and looking good for the winter or not, it doesn’t matter now. It makes me think of Isaiah 1:18: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. I like to imagine that when God forgives us, what has been covered no longer matters. It doesn’t matter if my garden [sins] are worse than anyone else’s, once it has been covered by God, it is all the same. I love that about forgiveness.
Which brings me to what I’ve most appreciated about the snow this year, and that is how it has brought people together. I have talked to neighbors I haven’t talked to in years as we shoveled the road together. When I walked to Red Apple to get milk and eggs, it seemed everyone in the store said hello and asked how we were getting along. Walking in the neighborhood where our kids love to go sledding, everyone looked us in the eye and said hello.
Snow has been the great equalizer. Reminding us of our powerlessness, need for each other, and the way no one was able to escape its affects this year. It has also opened our eyes to many who don’t have adequate housing or shelter and doors have been opened to let people inside.
Things that are hard have a way of bringing us together as nothing else seems to do. Maybe it is because we are reminded that we aren’t all that different. That the snow covers your yard just like it covers mine. That we all have to drive on icy roads [or not!], we all have to struggle to stay warm, we all have to shovel out of a big mess.
As the snow is melting now, I suppose many of us will go back to our isolated ways. But maybe we can remember that when life is hard [because it will be hard—guaranteed] we are not alone. Maybe we can let our hardships bring us together. I liked the feeling of comradery the snow brought this week. And I’m praying I will remember that snow or not, we are still all in this life together.
