Frozen!

No, I'm not talking about the animated movie, I'm talking about the actual world around me.  My part of the country is headed into a couple days of sub-zero temperatures, the likes of which, I hear, haven't been experienced in 20 years.  Supposedly the kids and I will be able to blow bubbles outside and watch them freeze mid-air, if only we can keep our eyelids from growing icicles before we get the bubble bottle open ...

Katie Kline, Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Yeah, we're pretty much hunkered down over here, bundled in sweats with blankets and heaters standing ready, only getting a blast of icy wind during our dog's reluctant trips out to pee.  I truly cannot imagine the difficulty of being homeless during times like this, and it's an unforgiving accusation against our culture that there are people cowering next to steam grates simply trying to survive.

If I'm being honest, however, there is a part of me that loves extreme weather and natural events.  Obviously I hate when they become 'disasters' - people losing lives and homes and livelihoods.  There seems to always be a cost of human life when extreme weather strikes, and that is never something I relish.  But on a different level, there is something peaceful to me about humanity being stopped in our tracks for a time by powers beyond our control.  To see an entire street without lights, or a city in slow motion, is in a way refreshing.

http://www.nathanjara.com/2010/02/winter-wonderland/

There are very few obstacles we humans haven't learned to circumvent when it comes to pursuing our own goals, timelines, and priorities.  And yet an extreme act of weather halts us.  Universities close, business meetings are canceled, and all we can do is wait for something that refuses to be hurried along by our inconvenienced lives.  Our technology can not (yet) eliminate blinding fog, or tame 100 mph winds, or stop blizzard snow from falling, and for a few moments we are no longer in control of the pace of our lives.

I do love that.  I love the unavoidable reminder that all the things we think are so important on a daily basis are specks in something grandiose.  I love the realization I get that the scale of my personal perspective is minuscule - an entire house looks like it's built out of Lincoln Logs when it's four feet deep in water or pressed against a twenty foot snow drift.  It's intimidating.  It's awe-inspiring.  It's something to respect because the level of power is so exceedingly beyond our comprehension.  It's suddenly clear that this world is not our own, and God's truth comes to life:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. - Psalm 19