“What a beautiful blanket of snow.” – posted as my Facebook status moments before I left my house this morning. 

It really was beautiful. It looked cozy – as if the ground was snuggled under a warm, fluffy blanket. I love the feeling of lying in bed and having a heavy blanket spread into the air over me, floating down to cover and warm me. The snow blanket reminded me of my own favorite blue quilt.

And then the wind began. The blanket, as thin as it was, was torn to shreds. The scattered pieces flew through the air as if a feather pillow had exploded – but the flying snow felt like shards of glass, not feathers. High winds and plummeting temperatures mixed to make less-than-pleasant driving conditions. Walking wasn’t much easier. As I pushed a shopping cart toward my van, it slid across the icy pavement in the opposite direction. (I won the battle by pulling instead of pushing it and using my foot as a brake behind one wheel as I unloaded my bags.)

As I drove home, there were moments I could barely see the car’s lights in front of me. When I could see the road for a safe distance, I’d look around. At times, there was no visible line between the ground and the sky. The swirling snow obscured the reality of the landscape.

And it had looked so peaceful and beautiful only a couple of hours earlier. 

It’s similar to the foundation we’re building by the choices we make. We make priorities. With every choice, we lay a foundation and build. It makes sense to us. It’s appealing to us (I assume…why else would we make the choices we make?!). Each choice is like a snowflake, and our choices create a blanket of snow.

And then the wind blows. Sometimes it’s gentle and barely disrupts our lives. Sometimes it’s beautiful. Sometimes it’s blinding. Not the wind itself but the stuff the wind picks up and swirls around us.  

The swirling blanket of snow slowed me down. As my visibility decreased, my caution increased. And I thought of how some of the choices in my life have blinded me at other times in my life. Having limited visibility isn’t always a bad thing. After all, it makes me focus on what’s immediately around me. My senses are intensified. But limited visibility also prevents me from seeing the details of my surroundings.

I suppose  the most important thing is awareness and discernment concerning the everyday choices I’m making, realizing the choices of today will be part of the storm of tomorrow.

Whether you’re life resembles a beautiful blanket of snow or a raging blizzard right now, choose well. Your visibility depends on it.

This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God. Philippians 1:9-11