Winter makes a comeback

It's been so cold this week! I've been abrupty reminded that February really is the bleakest, most colorless month, and that the unseasonal weather we've had recently was bound to end. In previous years I have rarely minded the winter weather, but this year is new for me in that Bob and I don't have central heating in our little house and we have relied on a small, cast-iron wood-burning stove to thaw us out. The inconvenience of heat (and air conditioning, in the spring and summer months) has allowed me to appreciate warm spells in the wintertime more than I normally would.

The sky is entirely blanketed with clouds like a thick-gray fleece right now. But when I woke up this morning and peeped out the front door of our east-facing home, the sun was just beginning to rise in the corner of the sky. Coral-colored waves of light shot out from behind the tree-line and reached out, engulfing the roof of the neighbors' (my in-laws') house. The light glossed right over the stretched-cotton clouds, dyeing them a powdery pink; between the clouds pierced the reds and oranges, until they faded gradually, purple, then into a whitish-blue sky.

God impresses me, the way he stretches the heavens out above us each day, smooth and elastic, like a balloon over the rim of a cup but encompassing infinitely more dimensions. Always familiar, but a new experience every morning.