The Weather and God's Promise

             When I was a senior in high school in 1950, we had a monster storm around Thanksgiving that dumped over three feet of snow on Pittsburgh.  I made a lot of money that week, shoveling sidewalks for 75 cents and driveways for $1.50.  I loved it.  I have no idea what I did with the money, but it was fun.  I have remembered that storm this winter, while we have been listening to what I call WOMG! radio and television spin horror stories of what terrible things the weather was going to do to us over and over again.  They love to do this because it raises them to a level of importance that nothing else will bring them.  They have even invented words to accompany their stories:  Snowpocalypse and Snowmageggen, just to be sure that they get our attention.  Somehow the media has gotten the idea that in order to impress its audience, it needs always to project a crisis of some sort.  We hear Breaking News! proclaimed much more often than we need to hear it.  It even gets to the point that we don’t pay a lot of attention to these stories.

            This past week we had an arctic front move through Pittsburgh that brought with it temperatures well below zero and we worried about driving and what was going to happen outside.  We got through it pretty well; there were some accidents, fires and a few frozen water pipes, but mostly, we got through the weather intact.  The weather was “breaking news” for a couple of days.

            This is the First Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday that we remember our Lord’s baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist, and the message from God that accompanied that event:  This is my Son, My Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.  It would be difficult to get a better recommendation on a résumé.  I also like the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that talks about the history of Jesus’ ministry and how it came to an end by “they put him to death by hanging him on a tree,” but that God raised him from the dead on the third day and he appeared to and ate with those of us who were his witnesses.  What a powerful statement of God’s presence here on earth, in the middle of our lives, no matter what it is that happens to us.

            In 2005, Rosie and I were living in Charleston, WV and I had a diagnosis of a large tumor on the left frontal lobe of my brain.  I went into surgery for it and I remember the moment before they gave me the anesthetic, how I prayed to God to be with me through it, and knew beyond a doubt that no matter how it all turned out, that I would be all right.  I had no fear of death at that instant, although certainly death was a distinct possibility.  It took me about three years to recover from the surgery, but recover I did, and by God’s grace I am here continuing my ministry.  I thank God for my life, and for being present with me in moments when all could have been lost.  But I think that is what God does:  We are assured that things will be all right, even when we have no idea of the outcome.  God raised Jesus from the tomb, and God will keep us safe also, no matter what it is that happens.  That doesn’t mean that we all escape death (that will happen to all of us); but even in death, there is eternal life.  We must never forget that magnificent promise.  In the context of God’s love, it really doesn’t matter much what the weather brings.