When I was a kid, I loved snow days! Back then, the only way to find out if there was no school was to watch the local news. So I, and thousands of kids across the region, would wait patiently for our school name to come up on the crawl to see if school was cancelled. When Winnisquam Regional showed up, it was like my friends and I had hit the lottery. Woohoo! We gave little thought to what that mean in terms of an additional day at the end of the year. We just knew that today we got to sleep in, watch TV, go sledding (and, of course, sometimes help shovel).
Snow days can be great. Even as adults, they can be like a force respite. When we can’t get out of our house in the midst of a heavy snow, it often means no work, no shopping, on errands. It is a forced sabbath. Pour a second cup of coffee. Sit and read a book. Maybe even curl up on the couch with the family and watch a movie. We might even take some of that time for extended prayer that we never seem to be able to have. Or we can spend a little extra time in the Word of God.
In many ways, a snow day is a little bit like what God intends for us in sabbath. God established in the Ten Commandments that every week we are to take one day for rest and worship. If you are like me, you may find it difficult to really live that out. What God meant as rest, we see as an opportunity to catch up on some work, busying ourselves with all kinds of tasks. But that is not really what God intended when He established the sabbath. It was to be a genuine time of rest and renewal, physically and spiritually. It was to be time set aside for Him in worship and for us, and those we love, in relationship.
I think snow days are God’s way of drawing us back to Sabbath. A time for us to be reminded that it is God’s intention that we regularly have time for rest and renewal. And if a snow day happens to fall on a Sunday, God has given us the wonderful gift of technology that allows us to gather virtually, even from our snowbound homes. This past Sunday, we launch a new teaching series entitled “A House of Prayer.” If you missed the livestream, I would encourage you to watch it on our church Youtube page.
So when the next snow day comes around, let it be a reminder to us that it is God’s plan, and desire, that we have that kind of rest every week. Have a blessed week!
I love you all,
Pastor Steve