Winter Warmth
Those of us who live in snow lands love to complain about the weather. We tell stories about spending the night in a church basement when the highway shut down, and the time it got so cold that spit froze before it hit the ground. Local newscasters demonstrate how it’s actually possible to hammer a nail with a frozen banana, just so we watchers can feel proud of how tough we are. (Of course, we’re sitting inside as we watch the news.)
I’m half convinced we’re bluffing, though. I think we secretly love winter. I know I do. Skimming across a frozen lake on ice skates as the sun sets behind the mountains, making cross-country ski tracks through a foot of fresh powder, riding a chairlift to a summit rather than spending all day climbing—what’s not to like about winter in a place like Colorado?
So, to those of you who live in Florida, Brazil, or other places closer to the equator than to one of the poles, we up here on the tundra appreciate your sympathy. Truthfully, though, you don’t know what you’re missing.
In Chicago, where I used to live, winter seemed to draw out the best in people. I noticed that people seemed most cheerful on frigid days. Waiting at bus stops, commuters actually talked to each other! (About the weather, of course.) Entering a coffee shop, you need only stomp your feet and say “Brrr!” and a chorus of strangers would start swapping stories about the blizzard of ‘78 or the year the pipes froze. Even the buildings looked friendlier: puffs of smoke wafting from their chimneys made it look as if they were breathing, like something warm and organic.
Winter presents a common enemy that surrounds us in the very atmosphere. We huddle together behind barriers of plaster and brick, warming ourselves for an expedition outdoors. Together, we’re going to beat that enemy. We are like warriors in a cave, trying to work up courage against the herd of mammoths outside.
Admittedly, sometimes the mammoths win a temporary victory. I have vivid memories of March, 2003, when seven feet of snow fell on our house in Colorado and we went without electricity, heat, and water for a week. We had a fireplace in one room, at least, and enough propane gas to melt snow on the stove. I snowshoed up a hill and stood there listening to loud cracking sounds, like rifle fire: huge limbs were breaking off, and whole trees laden with snow were toppling over. Deer lunged through drifts as high as their heads, stopping to pant after each laborious leap.
“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways,” said Elihu to Job. “He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor.” It happens every few years in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York. Trains cease running, cross-country skiers replace cars on the streets, and everyone stops from their labor.
Winter, above all, brings the human species down a notch, curing us of hubris. It reminds us of our true state: vulnerable creatures at the mercy of the elements, dependent on each other and also on God who created the planet. That’s a lesson all to easy to forget…until the next blizzard.
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19 responses to “Winter Warmth”
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About Philip Yancey
For Yancey, reading offered a window to a different world. So, he devoured books that opened his mind, challenged his upbringing, and went against what he had been taught. A sense of betrayal engulfed him.
i liked your book ‘The Jesus I never knew’
Now i know little about Jesus.
great writing…amazing experience …
very inspiring & true.
Just bought your book, What Good Is God. The title caught my eye. I am a convert to Catholicism and a believer. I am looking forward to reading it. You certainly have my attention!
Thank you for “what,s so amazing about GRACE”.
I NOW HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIANITY.
I was thinking about all of the your topics in books and videos I have read and heard and grown in my understanding & relationship with the Lord over the past 20 years. It occurred to me to ask if you have written anywhere or would consider writing on Christians who are estranged from God during their lives such as John Newton, and Augustine or perhaps die apostate as in Solomon’s (and maybe Elvis Presley’s case). While we cannot speculate if salvation was ever truly received, it is an excellent and tense topic for those such as Solomon or Elvis to deliberate over on the course of their lives and state of relationship to the Lord.
Thank you!
In South Dakota, we have been experiencing a lot of snow and extreme cold temperatures. I love winter and yet often it comes at a great cost. We lost someone recently where I work to the snow blizzard almost 2 weeks ago. I just finished your book, Rumors of Another World this morning….with all that is going on outside in the cold or inside in my life, I so appreciated the reminders of what we can look forward to in Heaven, but to live the here and now in expectancy and longing for what is to come and make a difference!!!
We are in the subtropics and it is soooo hot here. When we go into an air-conditioned place, we complain it is so cold. When we exit that place into the hot weathe, we complain it is so hot. Let us count our blessings. I’ve experienced 4 season weather and now that I’ve been in the subtropics for over 15 years, I can’t imagine myself in 4 season weather. I can’t imagine I lasted so long in the subtropics. I do realise the extremes of the cold and hot and give thanks for opportunity to experience the extremes. TQ for your sharing. It is inspiring and reflective.
I love the winter and I’m grateful that, living in Southern Ontario, I get to experience 4 seasons. Each one is wonderful and has much to enjoy! 🙂
Just returned from a long weekend away in Quebec City for The Winter Carnivale. If you have to have winter, well, let’s just say that the Quebecois know how to do it well! We loved every minute: dog sled rides, horse and buggy rides and races, ice hockey, toboganning, skiing, lots of hot chocolate, sticky maple syrup lollipops, beaver tails (the edible kind), the Carnivale Parade to celebrate Bonhomme, the ice palace, and yes, the Ice Hotel…completely made out of ice! You can get married there in the chapel, honeymoon in one of the cosy cold suites, have a hot (iced!) toddy at the bar….brrrr…we had Coke on ice – actually IN ice…in an ice glass!
You will find some beautiful photos of the hotel in Google Images, under Ice Hotel, Quebec. Not sure I would want to spend my winters there in Quebec City, but it’s a lovely, historic city and lots of fun at this time of the year…certainly brightened up OUR Canadian winter!
Dear Phillip,
Thanks for making us out here on Australia feel a little cooler.!!
It has been one one of the hottest summers on record this year, and our poor old gardens are suffering.
I have been sending you emails through Zondervan, but I don’t think they are getting through, because I no longer get confirmation from them.
I trust you and yours are well.
My Love,
Avenel Grace, Adelaide South Australia.
Hi Philip,
It’s another planet you’re describing, surely? Yesterday in my home city in Australia it was 102 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve only experienced snow twice in my life.
Spit freezing before it hits the ground. I wanna try that some time. 🙂
I live grew up in the Texas Hill Country just North of San Antonio. And while we get some low temps in the Winter, we rarely see snow. So we usually had to drive to NM or CO for the snow. As Texan I always felt a little cheated out of a good ole’ fashioned Winter. In the last two years down here, we’ve had warm temps in January and February, even close to 90 degrees. It’s like spring here right now, it’s beautiful. But it doesn’t feel right, even for a Texan. We would love to wake up one morning and see a glaze of snow covering everything. But we’re not holding our breath. Thanks for letting us know just how perfect it is in CO:)
I knew there was a good reason I loved winter!! Though have lived in sunny so Cal for a long time now and am one of those California girls, there is in me a love for the cold! I just love bundling up in coat and gloves, getting rosy cheeks from the cold and seeking hot tea or chocolate to warm me up. Though I have not been blessed to be able to recently visit one of our snowy mountains God recently provided for me a truck close to where I volunteer loaded with snow!! So much that I had my own snowball fight and had a blast, He is always so good.
I’ve never lived in a true winter-climate, but I so love a good southern snow. I’m coming to Colorado in March to help with my tiny granddaughter while my daughter and SIL ski, I’m so excited to see so much snow!
Your words today painted a beautiful picture Philip and of course I love the icy, snowy photos 🙂
Happy Monday
I live in Sunny Arizona.. the valley of the sun.. My winter day–today is 73 degrees. I am not kidding myself OR anyone else… I NEVER, nor will I EVER “miss winter”. Thank you, Lord, for the warm Sonoran Desert !! I have sympathy for those in the colder regions of our country, though.. I don’t need to go “brrr” to appreciate life!!
That is a very interesting way of looking at weather, particularly the winter snow variety. I had never noticed that passage in Job. Thank you for your insight. I really enjoy reading your books.
It’s true. I do miss winter here in FL. But I keep it to myself.
Beautiful…inspiring
I think you’re right, Philip. There is a sense of ‘huddling together’ during winter, and those harsh elements really do remind us of our smallness. There is something cosy about winter, both in sheltering from the cold and in relationships.
Having said all that, after nearly two years in cold and grey Britain, this Australian does miss the sunshine!
Sheridan
I especially like the last paragraph. It made me think that winter slows me down , and it is usually only when I am “still enough” that I experience an intimacy or begin to know God. We should have snow more often in unexpected places.