Song of Three Young Men, 35-65 - Daniel 3: 26-90
"Glorify the Lord, O chill and cold, drops of dew and flakes of snow, frost and cold, ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, praise him and highly exalt him forever."
***************************************
For you friends who live in the northern parts of the US, are you tired of the snow yet? I have shoveled my driveway 3 times in less than 2 weeks. I love snow, but we may have too much of a good thing going on here.
Today's reading comes from the book of Daniel. It is a "song" that Daniel and his friends sang together after walking around in an oven of burning flames, into which they had been thrown by their captors. They had just been saved by God, as they knew they would...protected from being burned to death. As the flames abated, they broke into a very long song of praise, basically listing out everything in creation they could think of to be thankful for. Among these things, were snow and frost and cold and sleet. A few items we may have had enough of for the time being.
Similar to this reading, one of my favorite songs by Nicole Nordeman called "Every Season", similarly praises the special elements associated with all parts of the year; Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. The build up at the end of the song after praising even the cold of winter, goes:
"And everything that's new, has bravely surfaced, teaching us to breathe.
What was frozen through, is newly purposed, turning all things green.
So it is with you, and how you make me new."
Whether it is the meaning of one of my favorite Jewish prayers, which has a line that says "When it rains, pray for rain"...or the analogy of the ugly duckling to beautiful swan...or the caterpillar to chrysalis... All things have a purpose and all things a part of creation are to be praised and glorified.
So, be thankful even for the snow...even when you are shoveling for the 4th time in 3 weeks (likely today). All of these things are a part of the wonder of creation which surrounds us every day.
All of these examples, to me,
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment