Snow - the theological implications

As I sit here at 12:30 on March 2, I'm watching the back of a snow storm Charlotte is going through. We had something called "Thunder Snow" which, to me, sounds like the name of a really bad band from the 80's. What it is, however, is the winter equivalent to a Thunderstorm in the summer, complete with heavy show fall, thunder and lightning - it really is a beauty to behold.
Let me also say this, having been raised in Texas (which I am grateful for), I have never seen a weather occurrence like this. There's several weather occurrences I have never seen, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, just to name a few. Yet this snow fall was such a beautiful picture to me.
Aside from the flittering huge white flakes floating to the ground and landing in an exact pre-determined spot (okay, maybe not, but it's kind of cool to think about), there's the fact that the snow, especially when it falls in such a great amount begins to cover every surface it touches.

Wood, covered.
Plastic, covered,
Automobiles, covered,
Roofs, covered.

It doesn't matter what the surface, hard or soft, new or old, light or dark. The snow will cover it.

This is a picture of God's grace. His grace covers all surfaces, no matter how cracked and weathered, no matter how small or large. The snow doesn't look at the roof of a mansion and think "oh man, that is WAY too big of a surface, let's skip that." It falls where it wants, and in this type of storm, it falls EVERYWHERE. My car has more snow piled on it right now than it has ever had before. I hope it starts in the morning.
Earlier tonight, Ang and I went out to play in the snow for a bit (this included running around on the deck without shoes on and slipping and sliding all over the place.) It was a blast. Spontaneity keeps people young. After we made our places in the snow from tromping around, I watched, hour after hour as the snow continued to fall - that those spots in which we disturbed the snow were being covered up again. As if we had never been out there, and I began to see a new picture of God's grace.

God has given us a perpetual, unstoppable snowstorm of grace in our lives. He gave us this when Jesus Christ took on our sin and died on the cross. Now we live, not free of sin, but hidden beneath the snow of God's grace, we we no longer are slaves to our sin. When God sees us, He doesn't see our sin any longer, He sees us as undisturbed, pure white snow. This is God's grace. It doesn't matter what you've done, or how dirty or old or worn down your surface is, God's snow still falls on it and covers that brokenness with His perfection.

This would have been enough for me, but as I sat out here watching the snow fall just a few minutes ago I noticed how heavy the snow sat on the trees, how much it weighed them down especially when the wind would pick up. The way the trees lamented having the extra weight, you could just feel the stress in their branches. And I thought, "okay, smart guy, so how does God's grace weigh people down?" and maybe this part is a bit of a stretch, but track with me for just a moment.

Have you ever met someone that was so involved in everything? Every activity, every opportunity, every possible social, ministerial and community event that they had nothing left of themselves? Did it seem as though they were weighed down?
I have been in that place. Where I could not say no, where I was worried about not making the right people happy and pleasing their ideal of what I should be. I was weighed down, I wasn't aware of the freedom which grace allowed me to have.
Rob Bell puts it this way - the only thing I have to focus on is pursing my relationship with God to reflect His glory and discover how beautiful He is, anything beyond that is sin. So it is possible to be weighed down, maybe not necessarily with God's grace but with our perception of what we need to be or do in order to win God's grace. What we must realize is that God has already given us all the grace He can and all the grace we need. There is nothing more we can do to convince God to give us grace.

All we can do is accept it or ignore it.

If we ignore it we live life like those trees, heavy laden, lacking vibrance and energy and hanging our head to the ground.

If we accept it, we live life hidden underneath the snow storm, covered in a white, continual blanket of God's grace.

The snow has just about tapered off now, though there might be more coming, who knows. But I pray that we would all learn to live under the blanket of God's grace, not weighing ourselves down with the expectations others put on us,

My brother Trey, and I had a conversation when he first moved back to Texas a couple of years ago. He said "I don't have time to worry about what other people think about me or the ministry in which God has placed me, I have to focus on running after God."

Maybe Trey should write a book...