Dear God,
It’s cold outside and I’m tired of it.
I know I shouldn’t complain. I am very fortunate. I live in a house with good heating. When I turn on my faucet I get steaming hot water. I take a hot shower. At night I sleep under a warm quilt. When I go out I bundle up with gloves, scarf, wool hat and a parka. For all that I am extremely grateful, Lord.
But then the wind blows into my face, my nose drips, my cheeks burn, the cold rises up through my soles. My toes are frozen. My fingers, even in their gloves, don’t want to move.
Help me, Lord, see the beauty of it. The ice on the river is beautiful, the sun sparkles on icicles hanging from eaves. There is majesty in the power of the wind, the snow, the hail. “He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He casts forth his ice like morsels. Who can stand before his cold?” the psalmist said. (Psalm 147:16-17)
Forgive me, Lord, if I get tired of it. I feel like my body is never going to thaw out. I look at pictures of warm places and feel only envy. I want to go for a long walk or run outside to praise you… but change my mind because of the cold.
Summer will come, and I fear then that I will complain about the heat, forgetting winter. But for now, could you warm my heart a little? After all, the psalmist also added, “He sends forth his word, and melts them” (Psalm 147:18). I wouldn’t mind a little melting.
Until then, let me praise you at all times, in the warm and the cold, in the thick and thin, when I’m irritated and when I’m glad. Let me be glad.
Even in this cold. Amen.
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