Dear Saint Mark families,
I hope you all are staying warm and dry in the snow. As I watch it bluster by our 18th-story window I’m in prayer for all those people in our region who are not safely hunkered down in a warm home. I hope you and your family will pray for them too. I’ve put together a few snow-themed devotional activities you can do as a family and a prayer to pray together tomorrow morning.
In the book of Exodus, we are commanded to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20: 8-11)
Matt and I have had a busy couple of weeks and I imagine, after the holidays, with exams and school schedules picking up, that your lives have not been much different. But this blizzard (Snowzilla as WaPo called it) has very literally forced us inside to slow down and spend time with each other and it has been a real gift. I’m sure there have been meltdowns, I’m sure there have been arguments over iPad’s and tv shows, there may have been sugar rushes and sugar crashes from too much hot chocolate, but I hope that this weekend has also given you a chance to pause and spend some unscheduled, messy, crazy, holy time together.
Peace,
Pastor Shelby
Ideas for families in the snow:
Construct Snowflakes: Take a square white piece of paper and fold it into a triangle. Repeat the triangular fold. With scissors, cut out shapes and designs along the sides of the triangle. Open the snowflake, glue it to a sturdier piece of paper, maybe add glitter or attach a ribbon, and hang as a mobile. Create multiple snowflakes!
Discuss how each snowflake is a new creation of God. If God takes such great care to design each flake, how much more care did God take in designing you? Read Psalm 119:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Talk with your family to identify the gifts that God has given each of you. Take this opportunity to encourage one another and share the ways that each member of your family contributes to family life. Even when the snow has been driving you all crazy for days, try to take some time to love each other and thank God for one another.
Look out the Window: Pull up your chairs, make a cup of hot cocoa, coffee or tea (or maybe something stronger for parents!) and watch the snowflakes fall.
Read Psalm 148:7-13: “Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and women, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted.”
Who is meant to praise the Lord? How does snow praise God? How can we praise God today?
Read Isaiah 55:9-11: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
What is the purpose of snow? What does it do for the earth? In these verses, God compares rain and snow to what? What does God’s word do? Why should it be important to us?
A snow day prayer:
Oh Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Everything we see reminds us of your power and your glory
because you made everything out of nothing.
You made the sun and the moon,
you made the snow and the rain,
you made the birds, and the fish and all the animals,
and you made us to love you and take care of your creation.
We praise you for all your gifts:
for family, for friends, for neighbors;
for warm beds, for a roof over our heads, for food to eat every day.
We pray for people who do not have those things,
that they may be cared for, kept warm and fed,
and that we might do our part to make that happen.
Thank you for helping us take care of your world.
(pray the Lord’s Prayer together)
Amen.
(My snow day ideas were adapted from here. The prayer is adapted from The Worship Sourcebook, page 382.)
courage in the cracks 