Unexpected Gifts

 

This morning, making my typical pre-coffee trek from bedroom to living room, I was taken aback by the view out the window at the top of the stairs. At the edge of the property outside stands a long line of tall, substantial trees. Overnight, the Lord left us an unexpected gift; a perfect, lightweight snowfall on the ground and covering the branches of the miniature forest in front of me. A dark grey, foggy sky framed the whole thing so immaculately that I had stop and try to breathe it in, considering the work of the hand of God and how nature cries out His glory. The view out my front door was equally as glorious. A surprising and precious late Spring delight. 

Memories, as they are like to do about now, floated down quietly and washed over me. Recuerdos of Cubanos in snow. I know, that seems a little off but, if you’ve never been with an adult the first time they see snow, I suggest you figure out how to have that experience. It’s so sweet. You never forget it. Which brings me to the recollection that swept aside the others. 

It was June 2017. The four of us, Tonni/Me/Jose/Yami, were in the PNW to visit a dear friend and meet her church family. It had already been a wondrous adventure when came the day on which we set out for Mt Rainier. Stupid thick fog surrounded us, and by the time we reached the snow line, a “healthy” amount of accompanying rainfall joined in. Not a standard pretty day but beautiful, nonetheless. This would be Yami’s first time seeing snow and she was amazed, if also very cold. On a large snowbank, in a steady downpour, she and Jose made snow angels while I took pictures. Then Yami, Tonni, and our friend Amy headed into the lodge nearby. 

Joseito was nowhere near ready to leave, so the two of us climbed a significant distance up the mountainside. As we neared a treeline that marked the top of that section he stopped, turned to me, and made a declaration. He wanted to build a snowman. And so, while I recorded the moment for him, he got to work shaping a small “muñeco de nieve”. As he gathered twigs for appendages and mouth, and small stones for eyes, the most cliched, remarkable, providential, grace-filled unexpected gift appeared. Poking from surface of a massive, deep wall of snow on the slope of Mt Rainier in thick fog and steady rain, as summer was about to dawn, he spotted a carrot. Yea, a real one. What? We both laughed out loud at what we knew was sweet reminder of the Father’s love for his two grown sons doing what little boys do in snow that afternoon. 

Joseito popped the carrot in place to finish his creation and proudly posed for the photo you see here. I had never seen him so child-like. Ever so briefly, the difficulties of simply living where he does vanished. The weight of leading a ministry that had grown beyond anything for which he had any earthly reference was lifted. Only the moment mattered. One more of his forgotten dreams had been made real by an unexpected gift of the grace of God. As we drove down off the mountain, he laughed with utter delight, sang and praised God out loud that somehow the Guajirito de Santa Rosa (little redneck boy from Santa Rosa) had just made angels with his wife and built a snow man on Mt. Rainier. You never forget these things.