Before the Ice Melts

There is beauty to be found if you’re willing to brave the storm.

I recently braved the cold of Michigan ice on the pier of Grand Haven.  With wind chills in the negative twenties it was definitely a feat for this Southern California raised girl.  While I generally avoid the wind and cold at all costs I found there is something beautiful that the cold creates, especially at extreme temperatures.  The way the ice forms on the water is amazing.  Normally I would say that I put up with the snow because it’s fire prevention for the summer months.  Yet I was reminded that even in the midst of the storm, and even before the ice melts, there is something beautiful to be found.  The same is true in the winters of our lives.  Usually I am waiting for the storms and the hard seasons of my life to pass while still knowing it is producing something good in me.  What if we also found beauty in the midst of the storm?  I wonder if we might find that even before the ice melts there is something beautiful happening in the midst of adverse conditions.  So while it feels cold, and the wind is blistering, look around and you might see, even here, even when there’s ice, there is beauty. 

“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

Job 42: 5 NIV

Job knew a few things about rough conditions.  He lost his family, possessions, health and hope.  After much venting from Job God speaks to Job with a long discourse putting him in His place with questions like ‘where were you when I created the earth’ and ‘who do you think creates all these marvels of weather.’  Job begins to see the beauty of God even in that place of loss.  Although God does restore his possessions and his health it’s before God brings any physical blessing that Job finds the greatest blessing in the midst of his current conditions.  For Job finds God in all His beauty.  He had heard and known of Him but now He sees and now He truly knows.  This is our greatest blessing that our eyes have seen the Lord.  Can you see Him?  Although the conditions are rough there is beauty in that place that you find Him.