Remember the joy of a snow day.  When I was a kid, a snow day was a double blessing.  NO SCHOOL.  AND enough snow to sled, build a snow fort, and have snowball fights in the neighborhood.

When I was a child, it was fun.  When my kids were young, it was fun to watch their enthusiasm.  Now that my kids are all adults, I no longer have any need to watch for the school closings.  Snow falls, temperatures, and visibility are additional hurdles to an adult day.

And yet I woke up knowing that I have lived my entire life in a place that occasionally shows me that without grace, this location would kill me.  (THAT took a dark turn).  But that reality makes me thankful.  How many cubic feet of natural gas have been consumed in the cause of keeping me alive in a northern climate?  I have a warm house.  I have a fireplace.  I have access to a tractor to clear the snow off my driveway.  (Though finding a place to PUT all the snow becomes a challenge on some days.)

I didn’t get a snow day, but I did get the added blessing of thankfulness.  Thankful for the many modern comforts.  Thankful for a God who has kept me alive for . . . Ahem . . . 53 years THIS Saturday.

Snow days are still good days.  This is adulting!  But I have tried to develop a habit of counting my blessings.  And on a day when nature is trying to kill all of us, why not stop and praise God for all the ways he has preserved us in this fallen world?  There’s a lot of snow out there, but His mercy is more!