Cold Times and Warm Hearts

It's in the forties today and it's supposed to be that way all week.  And so we usher in December with no real winter weather in sight.  I know it's hard to believe that someone like me (not a skier nor a snowboarder nor any other kind of winter sports lover nor even a native of this northland) is longing for snow and sleet and deep crisp cold.  But it's true.  I've been living here long enough to begin to fully appreciate the most trying of our seasons.  I don't relinquish my right to bitterly complain when the cold drags on into April or to get fed up with shoveling snow sometime in March, but I do long for the winter in December.

There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is that I have come to appreciate the character building nature of real cold.  Having something to overcome, to bundle up against, to withstand, to survive, helps us to draw on and develop some deeper levels of strength and fortitude. Adversity is good for the soul.  Struggling with just getting through a normal work day in the midst of blizzard conditions can lead us to find new spiritual resources.  I trust that people from places like San Diego must be just a little more shallow and superficial.  At least, I have begun to feel the need to tell myself (and them) that.

But the other reason, of course, has to do with the holiday season.  The first snow flurries also mean that Santa Claus is coming to town and all the rest of the trappings of the season come with him.  Even without the cold, the little twinkly lights are beginning to appear on some of the houses in town.  The city of Portland is already decked out beautifully for the season and the horse-drawn wagons are again plying the streets (at this weeks Christmas Church Fair, First Parish will add a horse-drawn wagon to the streets of Gorham as well).  During my walk last night I caught sight of a Christmas tree in a neighbor's window.  All of this is wonderful, but it doesn't quite come to life until the temperatures drop and a little snow flies.  I know that not everyone loves the holiday season and it can be a little daunting if you have to go to the mall, but for the big child in me and many of us, it's still a heart-warming time like no other.

It is the lovely irony of this time of year that as the air gets colder, so many of our lives can get warmer.  On one of these first really cold nights I expect to find myself curled up on the couch with Maureen in front of a roaring fire, warmer inside that on any night in July.  As the snow begins to fly our house will fill with Christmas decorations and the warmth of the old memories that they invoke.  We compensate for the cold with heartier meals, flannel sheets, thick comforters, wooly sweaters, and even the old heart-warming carols that we sing.  At its best, this season can be a time to really feel the warmth of family and friends, of love and companionship, of kindness, giving and sharing with others.  No matter how cold it gets outside, for the lucky ones among us, this may be the warmest time of year.  I suspect that those living in tropical climes don't quite understand how much warmth we can generate in our lives when natures tries to freeze us.  

The birth of Christ signifies and celebrates the coming of God's love into our world and into our lives.  How better to celebrate the coming of God's love than to bask in the warmth of all the love that's in us or around us?  How better to celebrate than to try and spread that spirit of love to other lives?  Maybe the winter's bitter cold reminds us of how much we need that.  Maybe it reminds us of how cold life can be and how alone and desolate we can feel.  Maybe the cold gives us a reminder to put some fire into our passions as well as our hearths and to put some flannel into our relationships as well as on our beds.  Let this season be that comforter that can swaddle your heart and that hearty stew that can warm and fill your soul.  Let God's warmth give you respite from this cold world with loves that will embrace you and light that will make your spirit glow.