The Salad Days

This is our 3rd Christmas in Minneapolis, and while the first one was brown, the last two have been white. Not only that, everyone around here is clamoring over the old fashioned Christmas we are having. As I took an ordinary trip to our trash can tonight, I stopped on the way back to look at the mini canyons of snow which I pass through to and from the trash, and for one moment, I looked around. I saw the Christmas lights up and down the block, and an entire city utterly covered in snow. As we have settled in for our yearly feast, snow has no bearing on the meaning of the holiday. But as I stood outside in the 0 degree night taking in the scenery around me, it did my heart good. This advent season has been dramatic in many ways, so the simplicity of a snowy landscape struck me as a piece of common grace on this Christmas Eve.