Will it snow?

 

It is Thursday, January 15th and my weather app says there is a chance of snow this weekend. If you live north of the Mason-Dixon Line this may not sound like much, but to us southerners it has our full attention. One snowflake is usually enough to cancel school, work, and pretty much any activity that requires leaving our home.  If the prediction holds you can count on all the bread and milk being bought up at the local grocery stores. Snow in the south is a big event!

If you find yourself in the presence of a child they are going to ask you if it is going to snow. The threat of ice, power loss, or any inconvenience will mean nothing to them. They want to play in it, and they want to miss school. When they ask they do not want a guess, approximation, or some percentage from a weather app or a meteorologist. They want a yes or no answer.

I remember asking my Grandmama one time if it was gonna snow. I do not know if there had been a valid prediction or if it was a rumor started on the playground between the game of kickball and playing cops and robbers. Her answer was unsatisfying, but very true: "it will snow if God wants it to".  Her answer to that question sheds light on how the Christian should look toward the future. James 4:13-15 states "13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. 15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that (CSB). Most of the control we feel over our lives is an illusion. We are all one phone call or doctor's visit away from realizing this. There is nothing wrong with planning and preparing for the future, but only God knows the outcome.

So, will it snow this weekend? Only God knows. That is true for all the other questions we have about our lives right now. Let us not let the anxiety of uncertainty rule over us. As the famous saying goes "I do not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future"!