Have you entered the storehouses of the snow...Job 38:22

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Beginning...



What do you think God has in mind for you in the "storehouse of the snow"?




I could say a lot about the man who asked me this question the other night on Facebook. I have only met him once and even that was a bit by chance. In the short time I've known of him, my brief interactions with him, have been meaningful and a blessing. 


I am so glad I had even a brief encounter with him. Some people are like that, their Christ-likeness shows immediately. They are like a piece of Godiva chocolate. You don't have to eat a large piece to know that you have experienced something wonderful.


There was something about the phrase "storehouse of snow."  I now abide in South Dakota. I try never to say I live in South Dakota because I don't feel alive here. I say I don't like snow but it isn't the snow that I don't like, it is the complications that it causes in my life. I can't get around like I would like. I am terrified of the ice that forms that makes walking treacherous.  


It's like that with South Dakota. It isn't really that I dislike South Dakota. South Dakota is just geography. An arbitrary designation by a government to classify a land mass. Like snow, there are places that have some beauty. It's an odd sort of beauty, never quite peaceful, sometimes eerie, but like all deserts, it has a harsh beauty.  A beauty not easily discovered under its harshness. Only an expectant eye and open heart will see its beauty.


It's been the disruption of my life; the confinement. South Dakota complicated my life. My life was so close to being settled until a fateful phone call from South Dakota. South Dakota broke in with its harshness. South Dakota was to become for me a sort of crucible. 


A friend in Nashville recommended a book to me. It is a good book about South Dakota. Many of the locals don't like the book. Perhaps because it is too true. I liked it. 


The book is written by a woman who like me found herself in South Dakota. Unlike me, it was her choice to come to South Dakota and she had roots to the land and the soil and the people. I have none. It was not my choice.


Nevertheless, in Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris I thought I found a little hope. She also found South Dakota like a crucible. She found herself in the silence of the snow. I have not.


I am not Kathleen, nor is she me.  Our journeys are not the same. She came willingly, I am still kicking and screaming. 


Nevertheless, the God who led her on her journey through the crucible of South Dakota is the same God that brought me here.  I am here.


It is time to answer the question. What does God have for me in the storehouses of snow?


As I journey, as I look, as I ponder, as I discover and as I suffer, I will share with you my view from the storehouses of snow.  There is a treasure here somewhere.  


I am opening my eyes and heart to find beauty in the storehouses of snow. My prayer is that as I do, I will be able to answer this difficult question. 


Join me. 



3 comments:

  1. Good thoughts! As I join you in this journey I hope I will find beauty in the "storehouses of snow" that are in my life. We all have issues in our lives that we want to understand WHY God has us "there". Your writing is down to earth and always thought provoking! Looking forward to walking through this with you!

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  2. Joyce, Today 'accidently' you met me...as thoroughly South Dakotan as it gets and who LOVES this place. You don't know me yet, but I don't think this was an accident. I think God set you, and I, up. I read what you wrote about my home, the badlands, and I have something to say about what you call desert...did you know the western part of South Dakota used to be lush and beautiful? Before settlers came with cattle...buffalo hooves nourished and aerated the soil...even old Lewis and Clark on the banks of the Missouri described a lush landscape...and those badlands? Remnants of an old sea, full of life...and yes, it's harsh and violent at times, but beautiful. I've been having to get used to eastern South Dakota...that's where the Lord has placed me...and I never thought I'd stay here. But such is life, sometimes, and He's faithful to walk with me as I dig in my heals and plan to bloom where I'm planted...we can be like a buffalo and walk well on this earth or walk like a cow--alien and foreign. I hope you will walk and leave blessing by the coming of your feet here...as I strive to do as well. Let's dance with the Lord... :)

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  3. I have yet to read that book. My husband thinks it is wonderful. Now it is 10 years and I am still not interested because I, too, don't like what being here has done to my spirit. If the Lord was not in my life, I am not sure what I would do. I, too, "accidentally" met you, just this morning and it is already a blessing!

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