Meet Pam!
I would like to introduce you to my friend, Pam. She is guest blogging for me while I prepare to speak for the upcoming National Hearts at Home Conference next week. I met Pam at the Write to Publish conference in Wheaton, Illinois last summer. We seemed to instantly connect. Since then, we have become friends, and we get together at least once a month for some VERY long lunches! We have also become each other’s mentor and accountability partners for writing. Since we were both school teachers at one time, we share our past experience of teaching as well. Besides being a dear, sweet friend, Pam is also a grandmother of 5 grandchildren, and a published author! She has written for Time of Singing, The Secret Place: Devotions For Daily Worship, Devokids.com and Appleseed Magazine.
The morning started like many others this winter. I got out of bed, opened the blinds, and muttered, “Not again!” More snow had fallen during the night, just as predicted. It was now official – this snowfall broke the record and made it the snowiest winter ever recorded here. All I wanted to do was go back to bed, pull the blanket over my head, and hibernate until spring.
But when would spring come? I mean, isn’t this March? Shouldn’t the temperatures be forty degrees warmer? Shouldn’t we see crocuses popping their little heads out of the ground? All indications point to a late spring: winter storms with ominous names pounding most of the country, below zero temperatures for days on end. Even that little rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, said we would suffer through a longer winter.
I know I’m not the only one praying for spring to hurry up and get here. The long harsh winter is the focus of most conversations — at church, at work, in the grocery store, on the news. Everyone from the plains to the east coast is grumbling. Even those in the South haven’t been spared. Yep, we’re all beginning to sound like Eeyore.
You know Eeyore, don’t you? The “I’m the gloomy friend of Winnie the Pooh” Eeyore. The “nothing is right” Eeyore. The “I can’t even enjoy my own birthday” Eeyore. He’s got a Murphy’s Law outlook on life — what could go wrong, will go wrong. There are days when I can identify with this little guy — like the day I woke up to another pile of snow to shovel.
But once in a while, even Eeyore finds a glimmer of hope in his misery. For example, when Eeyore loses his house, he says, “Not a stick of it left! Of course, I’ve still got all this snow to do what I like with. One mustn’t complain.” Even though his loss was huge, he looks for something to celebrate. He sees something positive in the snow where his house had been. (Snow! There’s obviously a lesson in there for me.)
Actually, we really don’t have it that bad. The Bible is filled with examples of people who had greater trials than a bit of snow. They suffered through wars, famine, oppression, and slavery, but in spite of it all, they still found reasons to celebrate. Even during the Roman occupation of Judea, the people remembered God’s blessings by celebrating religious holidays. Leviticus 23 discusses these feasts and festivals set aside for thanksgiving and praising God.
Jesus also participated in celebrations during His time on earth. John 2 tells about Jesus attending a wedding celebration at Cana where He performed His first miracle. Even during Jesus’s darkest days, He celebrated the Passover in remembrance of God freeing the Israelites from slavery. When Jesus’s situation couldn’t get any worse, He didn’t say, “I’m too depressed to celebrate the Passover with you disciples because one of you will lead my enemies to me, and then I will be arrested, beaten, and nailed to a cross.” Instead He celebrated and thanked His Father for all of his wonderful blessings!
You, too, can wake up in the morning and celebrate a new day filled with God’s blessings. It might be a celebration of something you take for granted like warm water for a shower, clean clothes to put on, or food for breakfast. It shouldn’t be hard to find something to celebrate. God’s blessings are all around you.
And for those of you who are sick of winter, instead of complaining about another pile of snow to shovel, why not take a walk in it and see the beauty of the sparkling crystals in the sunlight. Take pictures of the whipped cream snowdrifts that curl along the roadside and the soft blue shadows rippling across the snow-covered fields. But if this seems impossible to you, think of this:
“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.”
“So it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said brightening up a little,” we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”
Does God want us to celebrate? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Jesus’s parables of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, and the lost coin in Luke 15 show that even God celebrates. These symbolic stories illustrate how God rejoices when even one of his children is lost and then returns to him.
During this Lenten season, Christians around the world are preparing for the greatest celebration of all – the promise of salvation and Christ’s victory over death. Please join me in preparing for this time of rejoicing by finding things to celebrate every day.