Postcards from the Sky

There’s something about looking out the window in the morning and seeing the gentleness of snow covering everything, the delicate glass of ice twinkling from the branches.

Perhaps it’s because falling snowflakes are, among other things, postcards from the sky (a lovely line I’m borrowing from the title of a beautiful orchestral composition by Marjan Mozetich.) Snowfall is another way that the “heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).

Here in middle Tennessee, it’s rare to look out the window to a world of quiet whiteness. It is perhaps the infrequency of snow that makes me listen more closely to the message of glory it is sending. The greatness of God—His creativity, His supremacy, His beauty, His majesty—is unceasingly exhibited in nature and its governing laws. Yet, I often find myself so familiar with the wonders of nature that I forget to consider the One behind them all, and stand amazed.

But God never stops being great. There’s never a time when He isn’t glorious, righteous and terrifyingly holy. He exists beyond the outer edges of the universe and its countless stars. His knowledge is unattainable, His wisdom unfathomable. When it comes to this world and a few flakes of snow, it’s a wonder that God is concerned at all about what happens here. When I stop to consider what I cannot understand and contemplate God, His vastness, His very existence, and His heart of love, I feel like King David when he wrote, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4)

Yet mindful He is. Sometimes we need to be reminded. Sometimes He sends us postcards from the sky, messengers of grace and beauty, to show us the love, the kindness, the gifts that He wants to give us. But He intends these reminders to reveal His holiness as well. He also sends storms, thunder and lightning to remind us of His power, that He is a God of wrath and justice as much as He is a God of love and mercy.

We cannot forget any aspect of His nature. We cannot become so familiar with Him and His works of art that we fail to see His glory. We can’t afford not to humble ourselves before Him in reverence, or to be awestruck by the salvation and sanctification He offers us.

Whatever postcard He is sending you today, I urge you to receive it. And consider well the message He is sending. His shout, His whisper is too important to miss.