After the Snow

One of my favorite things about Colorado is the way we have four seasons. I grew up in the northwest where the seasons all kind of blended together. In Portland and Seattle, we had the drizzly season, the cold rainy season, the rainiest season, and the hot rainy season.

In Colorado, it is different. During the summer, the days can get fairly warm, but there is always relief in the afternoon. Just when it is starting to feel a bit too warm for comfort, the winds come in and cool the air. Our first summer here, we had a thunderstorm almost every day. The heat of the day would disperse as the thunder clouds would build up. The storms could be pretty intense, but they were short lived. They moved in and right back out again, leaving the earth smelling clean and fresh. Colorado has been in drought, so we have had fewer showers the last few summers, but the thunderstorms have still been a part of summer.

At the beginning of summer, everything is green. The fields and meadows are covered with green grass and wild flowers. As summer progresses, the fields lose their color, changing from vibrant green to yellow to brown.

As autumn moves in, everything goes dormant. The world is brown, except for the evergreens. I love to drive up into the mountains during the fall to watch the colors creep down the hillsides. While we do not have the brilliant reds of the fall maple trees around here, we have mountains full of aspen forests.

Aspen trees have a beautiful white bark and leaves that sing in the wind. In the fall, we drive up to Wilkerson pass and watch the progression of the season down the mountain. The color change starts at the tops of the hills. Aspen leaves turn golden before dropping to the ground. Early in the fall, the tops of the hills have a few golden trees interspersed with the evergreens. As the season progresses, the gold moves down the mountain, until it reaches the roadside.

Sometime during the fall, we receive our first snow fall. It can be a light dusting or a heavy blizzard. Through out the fall and winter, the world alternates between white and brown. Gray clouds come in with the snow, but rarely last for more than a day. Sunshine is the norm, rather than the exception. Days can be cold, and nights even colder, but the sunshine takes the edge off.

Following winter, we have the spring. March is actually our heaviest snow fall month. We get a phenomenon known as thunder snow. The loud claps of thunder in the midst of a snow storm. It is quite impressive!

Before the spring snows, the world is brown, void of signs of life. And then the snow comes. We have had a blizzard every other day for the last 2 weeks. None of the systems have dropped large amounts of snow, but the winds have caused white out conditions. The snow comes in and covers the brown, and when it leaves, the world suddenly springs to life. It is as if the snow has washed the earth.

In place of the brown that covered the ground before the snow, the surface is covered in green. This is our fifth spring in Colorado, and I am still amazed at how rapidly the change in color takes place. It literally appears to happen over night! The ground is green and the shrubs are full of buds.

As I type this, I am reminded of how Jesus washes away our sins. We are covered in filth, all brown and dirty. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross has given us the ability to be washed whiter than snow. As the snow washes away the brown, Jesus washes away darkness in out hearts.

This year, more than any time in my past, I am appreciating the newness of spring. As spring brings the world back to life, so Simon's rebounding blood counts are bringing him back to life. The bone weary exhaustion he was experiencing has been replaced with abounding energy. The fear of illness or infection because of his low white counts has been replaced with a zest for life.

The snows of spring have washed the brown from the earth and Jesus has given me back my bouncy, nonstop Simon, washing the fear from my heart.

And I give thanks.