Lingering Over Ice

The headline read "A messy morning commute thawed by morning sun." It iced overnight in Austin. Chris and I lay in bed listening to the frozen pellets of rain tap on the house, the grill sitting outside our window, the grass. We talked. It was late. I knew it would almost be gone by morning, and I was enjoying the rare symphony.


At 8 am baby is awake. We enjoy our morning routine of nursing and getting Daddy ready for work. Having forgotten the icy orchestra of the night before, and forgetting for the umpteenth time that we no longer park in the garage for the time being, we head out to the driveway, bundled. The morning is warming the earth as the hours tick forward. Everywhere water is dripping from rooftops and treelimbs. And, as we get into the car, we realize, the gentle frozen shower that cozied our midnight conversation, has left a thick layer of visual impairment on our windshield.

At first, Chris looks for an ice scraper. It is lost amongst the boxes, the moving day that looms. He tries a small shovel, a razorblade. We are truly Texan. Get some warm water, I suggest. Yes, he is headed that way. He returns, hot water creating a mini hotspring steamshower on this cold morning. I remember Costa Rica, remember Tabacon. The water gently melts away all that skews our line of vision. Not only that, it cleans the glass that had been neglected for months. Suddenly, all is very clear, and the day is bright, even if the cold from the night still lingers. The sun is fighting to win.


On my way home from the morning commute to Chris's work, I am thinking still about the ice, the car barely warmed from the 10 minute drive. Lord, show me how I can see you in this. And, it is clear. HE shows me how our hearts, often iced over from the wintery storms of life can skew our vision. How fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, malice, can form a thick layer of frozenness in our lives. We take tools, instruments such as shopping, drinking, socializing, busying ourselves with anything and everything to try to scrape it all off. We try in vein to remove the blinder, so we can see to go on, to keep going as we normally do. We forget that we are now parked in a new place, in HIS kingdom. We forget that we must do things differently when the ice comes. We must warm our hearts in HIS Word before setting out for the day or else risk crashing. And, when we fail to warm ourselves properly so that the ice can melt away, HIS mercy steps in and pours warming waters of life on us so that we might continue on and give HIM glory for the blue skies, the sunshine that warms our face, even as the gusty arctic air of trouble threatens to freeze us once again. Indeed it is a messy morning commute, thawed by HIS morning sun.


Thank you, Jesus, for warming my frozen heart. Thank you for melting my fears, my anxiety, my troubles. Help me remember to warm myself up with You before setting out for the day.

Photos courtesy: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net