A few flurries are floating around this afternoon and the warmer temperature of 16 seems like a heat wave. This month is half over which means I have two more weeks of reading, thinking, and filing….in other words relaxing.
The fluctuation of weather in this past week has created some interesting situations in areas around the North Country. There has been flooding from the rapidly melting snow along with the heavy rains causing ice jams that are magnificent and scary to watch. I grew up along the West River in southern Vermont and the ice breaking in the spring was a thunderous sound especially in the night when sound travels so easily. The below-zero weather caused frozen pipes with our neighbor over at the schoolhouse.
sure feels frustrating when all is well at your location but not at his
After Dick spent a day trying to trace the problem, he found that our lines were fine, but our neighbor’s weren’t. Somewhere between the pressure tank and his house lies the problem and as of today he still hasn’t found it. Dick shut the electricity off to the well so our neighbor can “dig” further and hopefully, get his water back soon. (When we bought the property the deed records a shared well. The pressure tank is stored in our shed and we keep it heated to help prevent problems, and the pump at their house is controlled by our breaker box. We have kept the power and heat on so our neighbor can have water. Sure feels frustrating when all is well at your location but not his.)
My neighbor Linda stopped over for a visit and it is always good to stop a while and chat. I had called another neighbor a few days ago just to check on her and it appears our neighborhood is staying warm and staying home. Dick and I along with Winnie and Sharon worked in the church library Thursday, culling, sorting, and rearranging the many books and movies. Dick and I will be helping the church librarian, Winnie, this year and are looking forward to helping provide the resources in many areas of faith and family.
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
Over the weekend we had a beautiful snow storm of about nine or ten inches and when getting up Saturday morning the pure white outside was blinding. It made me think of two things concerning God and snow. One is from Psalms 51:7b “wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,” and Isaiah 1:18 “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as the snow.” It is amazing that my horrible ugly sins, past and present, are now whiter than snow. And oh how white the fresh snow is. Pure. Unblemished. No dirt, no scars, no ugliness. Just a blinding brightness of white. Amazing. The second thought is that if God’s brightness and majesty is similar to the early morning brilliance of the snow, it’s no wonder we won’t even be able to look on Him. Was that why Moses couldn’t look at the burning bush? The glory of God is too overwhelming. Well, as the song says in “I Can Only Imagine….” I, too, can only imagine.
The snow is continuing to fall a little heavier now as I wind up this journal and my thoughts of snow turn to Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye singing, “Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, it won’t be long before we’ll all be there for snow…..” from the film White Christmas. It sure is lovely so enjoy the winter’s snow and have a great week. I send my love from just over the snowy hilltop in Norwood. Sharon