Kindness is Like Snow

“Kindness is like snow – it beautifies everything it covers.” – Anonymous.

I love snow. Not necessarily the cold, the wind, shoveling or driving around that comes along with it, but there is nothing more peaceful than a heavy snowfall. I have lived in some wonderful places where I breathed in the beauty and quiet of falling snow. I remember waking up on a school day in the shadows of the Wasatch Range in Utah, and looking out my window hoping my school bus wouldn’t be able to plow through the snow filled streets. As a teen I experienced the fierce wind and swirling dry snow through a North Dakota blizzard while sitting by the warmth of the fire playing a game of Risk or Chess. In Northern, CA the heavy wet snow was like piled-on frosting plopped on a gingerbread house in the magical Lake Alamanor community. The number one memory I have is while skiing in Breckenridge, CO on the massive mountain. Early in the morning I hit the slopes and skied my way over to a set of runs that I enjoyed. To my surprise I was the first, THE FIRST, skier of the day to go down the run. I stopped at the crest of the run and took a moment to absorb the stillness…no noise, the beauty…the snow on the trees looking out across the horizon the mountain range aglow with the rising sun and the anticipation of this being an epic run. As I effortlessly skied down the run (which was not normal for me), I made the serpentine trail through the knee-high powder. At the bottom, all alone, no other skier in sight, I looked back up the run, and soaked in what was the most spectacular 15 minutes of skiing I will ever experience.

I can picture this anonymous quote that “kindness is like snow – it beautifies everything it covers”. A blanket of fresh heavy snow can even make a dirty city street lined with cars serene and beautiful. Kindness is like that. A simple act of kindness through a smile, word or deed can cover the ugliness of a bad day. Kindness lifts both the recipient and the giver. Kindness is a Godly trait, and is listed as one of the Fruits of the Spirit. God is kind and his expression of love is in Jesus, His son.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. – Ephesians 2:6-7

God’s kindness is like the falling snow that beautifies everything it covers. Out of His mercy, grace and patience with me, my sins, my ugliness is covered by the purity of His loving kindness. The next time we have a heavy snow storm in Damascus (which I hope we have this winter), I will look out our front windows and see the snow pile up on the branches of the evergreens, blanket our lawn and turn our neighborhood into a puffy marshmallow land, and I will remember God’s kindness to me.