Winter

It is winter here in Ozarklandia.

I work in an office and believe me an office is a wonderful place to be in the winter. My office has a window. Not all offices do. I am blessed. To some degree, three earned post high-school degrees and over 30 years of work have paid off. But I remember the time that I worked outside when it was below freezing and the time I worked when it was over 100 degrees outside. I remember the time when I was on the factory shore and the time when I worked offshore in the gulf and the quietness of 2 a.m. in the morning. It is so easy to remember. And so I am grateful. It is a privilege to have a job and to work.

Yesterday, I read a letter of complaint from an employee because he had lost his job in a shutdown. And yes, I am sympathetic. Also I am blessed because I work. Not everybody can work or does.

At lunch I talked with a friend who had some health problems that prevent travel. As we discussed this, I mentioned that I was very, very aware of how fortunate I am to be able to ride my Harley outside or take long walks because it is a privilege to be able to do so. My friend does not have this freedom. Neither does my son, the Emerald Prince, who resides in the State-run Emerald Palace. Our home is decked in wreaths during this Christmas season, his is decked in barbed wire.

My friend is a Christian as am I. We talked about the difference that Christ had made in our lives. In both of our lives, Christ had transformed our hearts through His grace and His love. What a difference that makes in our attitude. Both of us have had to deal with those individualistic hardships that come into every life at one time or another. Being a Christian does not mean that we do not see hardships or pain or suffering . What it does mean is that we do not go through these pains and hardships alone. We are blessed. We are also led and directed by God who moves in our lives actively.

Illness that prevents travel or even prison that restricts travel is a blessing when one compares these situations to being a burn victim or a quadraplegic in a hospital or having a death sentence of a fatal cancer. Even there a Christian can be comforted by the presence of God and the hope of an eternity where he or she is free at last. We serve a God who gives us hope and transforms that hope into reality.

But that brings me back to the eyes of God and the window in my office and the tree outside. Now the window has been there a long time. The tree has too. But my eyes are new and they see things that they did not see before. Here is what they see. Outside my window there are a group of cardinals that just love the tree and the berries that are in it. They visit regularly.

I assume the cardinals have been visiting the tree regularly for years. However, with winter being here, the leaves that cloak the tree and the activities of these saucy little birds, clad in scarlet and brown, have been drawn back so that the activities of the cardinals are revealed to those of us who have eyes to see it. Through the grace of God, I have those eyes. They are God's gift. My eyes worked before but I was blind to the cardinals. My attention was focused upon myself, my family, my business and my worries.

These things now belong to God and I am free to see.

And so the cardinals were there all along. And I was there too. The diffence is that yesterday I did not see them. Today I do.

HarleyDad