December Snow

 

‘Like December snow, that lays in the wood

You're gone too soon...life can be like December snow’

‘December Snow’ by the Moody Blues

 

Well, here we are, and another Advent dawns; the start of the new Christian Year, and the beginning of our movement towards Christmas.

And yesterday the snow came.

Where we live, it came in abundance!

As I began to write this, the car is still to be dug out of the driveway.

My family know all too well that I have a very ambivalent feeling about snow. Actually, to be completely honest, they think that I have a completely negative view of snow! But, that is not actually true. If I have nowhere to go and nothing to do, there is nothing I love more than watching from my cosy sitting room as the snow falls. I have even been known to enjoy venturing out into the snow on foot (suitable clad, of course) and trudging through the deep drifts or throwing snowballs.

The problem is that mostly I have (or – at least – have had in the past) places to go, people to see, things to do, and so on. In such circumstances, snow is completely disruptive, dangerous, unnerving and unwelcome. As you may, by now, have gathered, I am not ‘Dreaming of a White Christmas’!

The Moody Blues song (quoted above) suggests that December snow can be gone too soon. But, in my view, too often it is not gone soon enough!

But, it depends on so much. It depends on perspective and circumstance.

My wife, Jane, loves the snow. Her spirits lift when the snow falls. A few years back, when it snowed and everything around looked lovely, she posted on Facebook, ‘I love when the snow falls, does that make me a bad person?’. Of the replies to her post, exactly 21 people said ‘Yes’ and exactly 21 said ‘No’!

I guess the truth is that there are two sides to the snow. It can indeed be beautiful, evocative, and ‘magical’. It can also be disruptive, disabling, and even dangerous.

And it seems to me that there are also two sides to this Advent Season. Of course, it is when we begin to look ahead to Christmas and anticipate the celebration of Jesus birth. But it is also a season of waiting and of ‘not yet’. Hope on the one hand, and delay on the other. The joy and peace is tempered by the awareness that the coming of God’s Kingdom in all its fulness is not yet. We sing of peace but we still are so acutely aware of so much conflict in our world (even, at this time, in that very land in which our Saviour was born). We talk of joy, but we know that there are many who are so weighed down with despair, anxiety, dread, illness or loss.

God’s Kingdom is not yet here.

Advent has (as it were) a ‘dark side’, which is why traditionally such things as death, judgement heaven, and hell are themes for this season. Doesn’t sound very Christmassy, does it? But that is one of the reasons I would like the church to be more focussed than it often seems to be, on holding off on the Christmas Carols etc during this season. By all means, once Christmas comes, let us sing them with joy and delight, and continue to do so for the 12 days of Christmas that begin on 25^th December.

But there is a place for acknowledging the dark realities of our world and our lives, and for affirming that God’s Kingdom that has come, and keeps coming, is nonetheless still to come in fulness.

This does not mean that we fail to anticipate Christmas, still less refuse to share in the joy and celebration that is around. But, just like snow, there is another side to it.

And, I suppose, this is why in this season, I tend – both in my own devotions and in public worship – to focus on the three themes of hope, waiting, and patience.