Sunlight crept slowly above the horizon as I sat sipping my morning coffee, Irish Creme, my personal favorite. I took note of the increasing light and with it came an astonishing surprise! Nature had clothed our world in a fresh, dazzling coat of frost. I observed in fascination the tree limbs coming alive as the morning mists dissipated. Suddenly I realized that I was losing the moment! I threw on a coat and headed toward the patio door with camera in hand. Stepping out I was greeted by chill, frosty air. Limbs that I had not finished cutting down were alive with a brilliance with which a million diamonds could not compete! I clicked the shutter over and over as the light glimmered and danced across the trees. Beautifully wrapped in ice crystals the limbs, both the ones that should have been cut away this past fall, and the ones that are vibrantly alive were glistening together. It seemed for a short time as though no outstretched vestige of folliage was immune to the encrusting beauty. So it is in our lives, no person is beyond the reach of the transforming love of God to be found in the gift of His Son. Not even ancient dead wood such as myself is able to resist that love once the heart has been touched. December 7th was transformed by nature's hoary breath into a sparkling celebration of God's perfect plan for our lives. I realized in an instant that the worthless dead limbs I had neglected to cut away were totally transformed. The ice knew no distinction between living and dead, only immersion. This brings me to tonight's thought. No life is so totally without value, so distraught, that it can't be transformed by our Creator through faith in His Son. Many of us are as utterly entangled in one another's lives as the overhanging branches of these trees, and yet God has chosen us in all of our stages of growth to offer the gift of being made "white as new fallen snow!" I pray your life has an opportunity to be recreated by the transforming and renewing grace of our Lord. In Christ's Love, Preacher.
