Today is another beautiful crisp, clear winter day. Father Sky has sketched a sapphire blue sky with no clouds in sight. My pets are invigorated by the cold air and are skipping around frisky and happy. The sun is blazing bright, her warmth hard to feel on this bitterly cold morning. I’m on snowflake watch. Hoping to see a few flakes drifting down from the sky tonight. I’ll stay up like a child watching for the first flakes.

Mother Nature painted the layers of clouds late afternoon gloriously in shades of pink and periwinkle and purple. I was going from the dining room windows to the kitchen watching the sunset painting while I was cooking supper. I didn’t want to miss her masterpiece. Her watercolors on the clouds were brief but beautiful. By the time I got my camera the clouds had faded back into the vanilla overcast sky. Mother Nature is quite an artist. She blazed up a watermelon colored wildfire across the horizon before she took up her brushes to paint the clouds.

Father Sky, dressed in his wool tweed overcoat and winter boots, escorted the sun down the horizon. The sun had a beautiful silver rayed shawl draped over her shoulders as she took Father Sky’s arm and walked down the horizon. She turned the day’s lights off as Father Sky went to wake the moon and stars sleeping snuggly under their cloud covers. Just took Penelope for her last walk and the sky pageant characters are still sleeping quietly, their constellation friends, doing the same. Nothing is pinned on the dark purple night sky canvas.

Don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about snowmen. I looked up the definition of a snowman — an anthropomorphic snow sculpture of a man. That sounds scary! All the weathermen said this would not be snowman snow but a slushy mess. But a girl can hope!

Can’t remember building my last snowman but I remember the first one I built for my son Thomas. Have a photo of Thomas and Chief standing by the snowman. Don’t know why I built such a tall snowman. I was excited and by the expression on Thomas’ little face, he was excited, too. From the Frosty the Snowman song, we’re told to decorate our snowman with a corncob pipe, button nose, coal eyes, and an old silk hat. My snowman has a farmer’s straw hat on and my scarf around his neck. Got a scary pitchfork, too. Looks like a few twigs of hair are falling out of his straw hat. Maybe this is a country snowman. I can remember making it like it was yesterday. I was just as excited as Thomas was.

Several years ago my grandchildren were here celebrating Christmas and it started snowing. One of my most cherished photos is of me and the children catching snowflakes on our tongues that afternoon.

I love this quote by Lewis Carroll. “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and the fields, that it kisses them so gently? And, then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep darlings, til summer comes again.”

When the snow falls we need to be reminded that snow comes from God. Bible scripture tells us God is in control of our weather. Scripture in Job says, “He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’” Just as the snow covers winter’s scraggly landscape and transforms it into a winter wonderland, God takes our sins and makes them white as snow. He transforms us with his power and purity.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” God gave us the ability to make our own decisions but God ultimately decides what will happen. He is in control even though we sometimes don’t understand when our plans are disrupted. If we’re patient and sincere in our prayers God will help us understand his plan. Will he send snow tonight. I don’t know. I hope so!

“Snowflakes are kisses from heaven.” — J.B. Priestley