WINTER!

A historic cold wave, the most intense in the Dallas area since 1989, commenced at 04:00 hours on February 1st and finally peeked over 32° at 10:00 hours on February 5th. A record 102-hour streak of freezing temps.

Death-beckoning roads, just sheets of ice, shut everything down. No clinics, no seminary classes, nothing. I stayed at home.

Well, not really. I bravely ventured out twice: once to go get a workout at Landry Center. (Yup, a workout! Why are you surprised?). And another time to chat with a neighbor, on whose frozen steps I took a spill.

(My back is broken, I’m paralyzed, I can’t breathe, I’m unconscious …. I’m suing you, Timothy!)

Once out, I couldn’t drive my car up my sloping driveway back into the garage. So there it lay, on the street, all wrapped in a swaddling white blanket, snow on snow, just like in the bleak midwinter, where frosty wind made moan, and earth stood hard as iron, and water, like a stone.

What do you expect in place that has no snow plows, only some sand, and just a few grains of salt?

Oh, and at Landry Center I ran into a crowd of morose DTS students. Their singles dorm, Washington Hall, was the unfortunate victim of a “rolling blackout,” courtesy of our fair city’s utility company. No heat, no light, no internet. The sufferings of a seminary student. Their rewards will be many!

Apparently it’s not all over yet. There might be another cold snap this week. I’m going back to Aberdeen, or even Boston!

But right now, we’re just making things feel like home for those good folks from Wisconsin and Pittsburgh coming to do battle here today.

But, all things considered, I must say I enjoyed the break of four days.

Yes, we must be grateful for the seasons, but not just for getting snow days off.

After the flood in Genesis, Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices to God.

The LORD smelled the soothing aroma;
and the LORD said to Himself,
“I will never again curse the ground
on account of man,
for the intent of man's heart is
evil from his youth;
and I will never again
destroy every living thing,
as I have done.
While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest,
and cold and heat,
and summer and winter,
and day and night shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:21–22

Seasons are a mark of God’s faithfulness!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!"
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Thomas Obadiah Chisholm (1866–1960)

What a God!

Yours is the day, Yours also is the night;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
You have established
all the boundaries of the earth;
You have made summer and winter.
Psalm 74:16–17

And this God is a faithful God. Faithful throughout generations. Faithful in the giving of His Word. Faithful in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. Faithful in His continued grace extended towards us. Faithful as He takes us home one day. And faithful for all eternity!

Your lovingkindness, O LORD,
extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the skies.
And the children of men take refuge
in the shadow of Your wings.
Psalm 36:5, 7

We do! Even as we shiver!