Winter Lessons

Towards the end of February almost all of our staff went into Rocky Mountain National Park to take a Leave No Trace Master Educator Course. It was a chilly, windy yet beautiful time, experiencing Christ through one another and through His divine revelation! 

These winter experiences are a visual reminder to me of the character and nature of God: God is powerful as the mighty gusts of wind; God is majestic as the snowy slopes; God is beyond human understanding or control. Amidst the struggle for survival in these winter environments, there is a beauty beyond compare. 

As a senior in high school I wrote a paper entitled, “Searching for Beauty in the Breakdown” that discussed my own search for meaning, value, and goodness despite the evil that happened to me personally and the evil that manifests all over the earth. I was searching for redemption and the restoration that I believe is a theme of the whole history of humanity (and theme of all of scripture). 

Winter makes these themes incredibly obvious! Yes, the gusting wind and white out conditions can be difficult, annoying, or scary, but the peace found there and the peace from the Lord in those moments is beyond compare. Once we open our eyes and look outside of ourselves, we see an environment that the Lord made for his own pleasure. We are able to really see how much bigger this life is than ourselves. 

He’s weaving together a redemptive story more full of meaning than any human author could ever write!