Metaphor for Mainliners and Maybe Others - February 3, 2011

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%



@#$%

Aside from the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day muses, I like February about as much as ecclesiastical meetings that accomplish so little for Christ's sake.

If you don't know what I mean, good for you!

Anyway, February 2011 really started off with a bad bang as my neighborhood joined about a third of the country in one of the worst blizzards in decades.

Empathy was ubiquitous.

@#$%

Actually, apart from my ___ and ___ about it, I like snow.

As winter wanes and spring beckons - especially in February - I find myself praying, "More snow, Jesus!"

It has more to do with metaphors than anything else.

@#$%

My earliest and warmest childhood memories revolve around holidays; especially birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

Just like I've never baptized a baby named Herod, Jezebel, or Judas - though I'm one of those Presbyterians who think some people need to be baptized again - I'm like most folks who aren't into Hallmark specials like Boxing Day, Earth Day, National Boss Day, Clergy Appreciation Day, and the like.

I don't even know what Boxing Day is supposed to be all about; which makes sense 'cause I'm having a hard time figuring out Canada.

Frankly, my memories have little to do with the stuff under the tree or in the basket 'cause there aren't many things that don't wear out, get thrown out, or become played out.

Mostly, I remember feelings - the warm and cozy feelings of loving and being loved.

@#$%

I know lots of folks don't get metaphors, poetry, homiletics, and deeper stuff.

They're like those process people who meet to meet without the need or even expectation of accomplishing anything for Christ's sake.

Parenthetically, just as @#$%s aren't profanities but only section-separators, "for Christ's sake" is to be taken literally; as in doing stuff, uh, for Christ's sake.

Geez.

And geez is a grunt not a nickname!

O.K., the preceding was for those too anal to recognize genre doesn't always respect the Gregg Reference Manual, Strunk and White, MLA, or even Turabian.

Friends, the world is painted by Dali and explained by Vonnegut so much more than the superficial who can't/won't dig deeply for treasures.

Go to the archives of www.bnnsradio.com and click on the 2/1/11 broadcast of Kopp Disclosure for some clues from "Pat the Poet" (that show's guest).

@#$%

Getting back to snow, snow has that effect of resurrecting warm and cozy feelings pour moi.

Whenever it snows, I feel great.

Snow feels like a holiday.

@#$%

Snow reminds me of God's grace.

As the leaves and life of spring, summer, and autumn wither, fade, fall, and die, snow comes along to cover the emptiness and barrenness of it all.

Snow covers holes, junk, trash, dead plants, scarred landscapes, and other unsightly and depressing things.

Mysteriously yet consistently, a layer of snow brings attitudinal as well as actual warmth.

It's the same with God's love.

God's love covers our emptiness, barrenness, holes, junk, trash, scarred landscapes, deaths, and other unsightly and depressing things.

February becomes bearable when it snows.

@#$%

Though snow melts and gets dirty and polluted by other elements, it always snows again.

It's the same with God's love.

God's love keeps coming back again and again and again after we get dirty and polluted by other elements.

@#$%

Snowflakes are unique.

God made each unique from the others; and He loves each of us as if there is only one of us to love.

God loves each of us no more nor no less than anybody else.

God came, lived, died, rose, and reigns in Jesus for everybody - the whole world - you, me, and even them.

@#$%

Snowflakes melt so quickly by themselves; but when they stick together, they can stop traffic.

I hope countries, communities, schools, businesses, families, and churches don't miss the metaphor/lesson in the preceding sentence.

Snowflakes are flavorfully unique yet inextricably interdependent by divine design for survival.

@#$%

I like snow.

It makes me feel so warm all over.

Some of the best loving in my life has occurred during the heaviest snowfalls; and when it snows a lot like it did on February 1, the depth of God's love comes to mind.

So I'm praying for more snow.

With all of this world's meanness, madness, and misery, I need regular reminders of grace beyond warrant or expectation.

I'm praying for His snow to heal hurt relationships, restore fresh passion for Him and His, prompt mercy-filled incarnations of Philippians 3:12-21, and use churches to model invitation, welcome, inclusion, and unconditional favor.

@#$%

I'd like to see more snow in our weary world, fragmenting America, and dysfunctionally divided churches.

Everyone needs His covering.

That's why authentic Christians, women and men who really try to follow Jesus as He described discipleship in Holy Scripture, are the real snowblowers.

@#$%



@#$%

Blessings and Love!