Snow-soft thorns

I emerged from the back door in the dawning of the day to a winter’s hush as a curtain of large snowflakes dropped from the sky. Dusty was ecstatic, trotting off with purpose, her tail wagging joyfully. This is her kind of weather.

We slithered along the virgin snow, as yet unmarked by tires or footsteps, and turned down the lane. Bare-branched trees and thorny gorse bushes were blanketed with this soft covering and hung low to the ground. I particularly noticed the thorns, now so softly outlined against the brown trunks of other trees. 

I have to admit, my first reaction to this winter wonderland on a Monday morning when I had a hospital check up appointment, was not positive. I moaned inside as I thought of the tailbacks likely to slow progress to the big city. 

But how could I remain grumpy when Dusty frolicked like a puppy in the softly falling snow, every big flake unique? How could I keep grumbling when the thorns were now softened by this covering from above? When the harsh browns of winter were now draped in a fleecy white?

We don’t always get what we expect. Our well-planned days don’t always succeed. It took us one and a half hours to do a twenty minute journey. I had to abandon plans for a little shopping. 

But as I look out my window now and prepare to walk Dusty again, snowflakes drift down as if God were sifting icing sugar over the frozen earth of Scotland. He makes everything beautiful, if we only open our eyes and our hearts and put our petty plans in perspective. 

He can soften the thorns in our lives, if we only let him.

Thank you, Lord.

And now, into the winter wonderland.