DAILY DEVOTIONAL    📖  

shinshin -

In case you haven’t heard (or been under a rock for the past week or so), it’s gonna snow!

I like snow, at least when I can sit in my chair with a cup of coffee and stare at it through the window.

 

This one sounds like it’s gonna be a big one, maybe a foot or more for us here in Berea.  Please be careful out there..

 

I love the quietness of a snowfall.  It seems like the animals and birds hunker down and get quiet, and there are fewer vehicles on the roads.  

 

Did you know that there is a term for that? It’s called  shinshin (pronounced sheensheen, a Japanese term for silently falling snow). In the moments after a snowstorm concludes, leaving behind a landscape shrouded in white, the great outdoors often becomes noticeably quieter.

 

As it turns out, there's a scientific reason behind the calming silence, with the characteristics of snow playing a big role in how sound can travel.  When light, fluffy snow accumulates on the ground, it acts as a sound absorber, dampening sound waves much like commercial sound absorbing products. 

 

There are times as well when God calls us to silence.  When our minds are constantly filled with outside stimuli, it can become impossible to make space for the lessons that silence can teach us about God, about ourselves, and about His work in our lives. 

 

Many scriptures speak to this thought.  Ecclesiastes 3:7 says “A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;”

Mark 1:35 says “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

 

So, while the snow is heavy and travel outside makes little sense, take advantage of the silence!  Meditate on your blessings, thank God for your safety, and pray for others who might be in precarious situations. 

 

Finally, be safe and remember; it will melt! ~jme

THOUGHT OF THE DAY 🤔 If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm. ~Frank Lane