As this week has been a battle to get in to work for most of us I thought I'd blog a little about my journey in to work. The roads being too icy for most, I've been setting out for the Gosport ferry on foot. The staff have shovelled out a path for us to the covered jetty. Below you can see what it looked like on Tuesday night, as we waited to board the ferry from the Portsmouth side during the first heavy snowfall. This was about 8pm, and we reckon the snow started before 5pm.
Heading on into Portsmouth:
Here is proof that my phone camera isn't really up to taking pictures in the evening light (This is Tuesday night again). The blurry effect on some of the shots is quite fascinating. Maybe I will buy myself a new camera soon....
The area around Guildhall Square stayed slippery the next few days from quite a few travellers passing through, just getting worse as the snow ices over. I heard about a group of volunteers taking shovels to the highstreet nearby though - good on them!
Trekking into work has to be done, but it can teach us too, and I want to be someone who lets the world proclaim to me and remind me of the works of God. I was reminded about this when snow came up in a great Bible passage. Here is the Bible telling us one thing snow should remind us of.
First a bit of context: After inviting people to come to Him, God is talking, through his prophet Isaiah, about his powerful word and how when he says something it achieves his purposes - which he says in later verses are to bring glory to himself and joy to people. And here's the quote:
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah, chapter 55)
God is powerful and will not be stopped in using his message of hope about Jesus to change people and the world, even though it can take a while for the seed to sprout! As John Piper says in The Supremacy of God in Preaching we won't know the full impact of God's word until all the fruit on all the branches on all the trees that have sprung up from all the seeds we've ever sown (by preaching, or speaking about God to people) has "fully ripened in the sunshine of eternity".
So there you have it: God's word is like useful, wonderful snow! May God use my humble words to spread his wonderful message and to reach places for his glory.
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