Wintry Scenes

People on social media seem to take special delight in sharing pictures of snowy gardens and white peaked mountains. Perhaps it is for the benefit of their contacts who live in the Sahara desert or Amazonian rain forest, for whom snow and ice are exotic mysteries, oft described but never seen. Well this year I’ll confess to admiring a few winter scenes of my own. Heavy frost and freezing fog make for interesting landscapes. They are chiefly attractive because they won’t last forever. If our temperature was minus 4 all year round, we’d not bother taking photographs and we certainly wouldn’t get so excited by it all. If the British climate became the same as northern Norway for each of our 365 days, I’d join those rich, alcoholic pensioners who retire to Spain and sit lounging by the pool.

Similarly, I can enjoy this world better knowing it’s not my final destination and it won’t endure for ever. I’m just a tourist passing through, just a walker taking snaps on a mobile, sharing pictures no-one really sees. The day is coming when Christ will call us home, or He’ll return to establish His visible kingdom of equity and righteousness. It is for these reasons that I am content to pass through this world, to admire what beauty it has and to disdain its ugliness.

Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. Psalm 84:6-7