White Christmas

(poem written this early snowy Christmas morning before anyone else is awake)

Of all the songs she could request

Memaw chose “White Christmas”

... “just like the ones I used to know”

I fumbled through the words

    as I thought through the rarity of a white Christmas

        in Indiana where I grew up

        and even more so in Kentucky where my kids are growing up

Yet this year You did it, God

You blanketed our streets and yards with snow

    as a little gift after the hard year we’ve all had

    some “merry and bright” to add to our “masks and social distancing”

As I drove the slick streets to pick up

    the cheese and strawberries and milk in our grocery order,

        I was thinking of this gift 

            You were giving Lexington this year

                and I was thankful

            And almost in the same breath,

                I realized just how treacherous this two-mile trip would be

                    when I slowed down at an intersection...

                    ...and kept going

            I passed wrecks and sirens

                and prayed and praised my way to Wal-Mart and back

And I realized that a White Christmas brought with it a choice: 

        gratitude or grumbling    

        joy or complaint 

Many would see this gift of snow and be thankful

while many would only have eyes for the negative of what snow can bring

This Christmas morning...

I don’t want grumbling to take up any space in my thoughts or words

This Christmas...

I CHOOSE gratitude

I CHOOSE joy

I CHOOSE wonder...

...the wonder of a God who came near into a world  of grumblers

...the wonder of a God who delights in reaching into His storehouses of snow to give us 

        a white Christmas