Snow: Appearances Can Be Deceiving!

Those who are snow lovers among us are right now just loving our current weather pattern (which by the way is forecast to be with us for the foreseeable future). A cold High pressure system in Canada is pushing waves of arctic cold our way. At the same time an active southern branch of the jet stream is generating storms. And when those storms from the south collide with the arctic cold over us, bingo! - you get snow, and sometimes lots of it! Our snow of Tuesday night is just a foretaste of the snow that weather forecasters is saying is on the way! As I write this posting, Accuweather.com is looking at the probability of a substantial snow storm hitting us this coming Friday into Saturday ... with another possibly arriving in our neighborhood next Tuesday. Well, what can we say? It is February. And historically, February is the snowiest month for southeastern Pennsylvania! So for those of us who are growing weary of shoveling our driveways ... we can either pay someone to do it .. or just GRIN AND BEAR IT - remembering as we do that spring will eventually arrive! 

Now one thing you probably don't know about snow is this: Snow is actually clear or transparent. Snow appears white because the crystals act as prisms, breaking up the light of the sun into the entire spectrum of color. The human eye is unable to handle that kind of sensory overload. Therefore, we see the snow as white. Interesting, eh?  

So ... not everything is as it appears! And what is true of snow is often true of people. Yet, we are so quick to misjudge others - and this is usually in the area of why people do what they do (or why people say what they say). All of us could (and should) heed the advice of Jesus Himself when he said, 

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:1-5). 

Jesus does not forbid us from making evaluations of others (so if they have a speck in their eye we can help them remove it) - but He does forbid us from critically condemning others, especially while our house is out of order! 

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj