The Portion of my Inheritance

Have you visited the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of hail?  Job 38:22

My home state of Michigan is shut down today with several inches of accumulated snow, stranding people in their homes, forcing them to hunker down under the Arctic winter storm blast.

Photos of the blizzard fill my computer screen, revealing to the world the beautiful snow fall and a fun filled day for the home bound school children. Pictures of how they spent their day, and the epic posing in front of huge snowmen, clad in heavy winter coats, snow boots and wollen mittens and hats.

This is not a new concept for these Michiganders, they know the drill well and for the most part embrace a day off from work, toasting themselves in front of a blazing hot fire. Baking cookies and sipping hot cocoa oozing with fluffy white marshmallows. Snuggling on the couch. Filling their tummies with hot chili, drenched in onions and cheese and topping it off with a cast iron pan of cornbread.

I also know this scenario well. I remember it clearly and as I sort through the photos of the new, freshly fallen snow of today, my memory takes me back to other snow storms, from many years past.

I remember quite clearly the great snow storms that we had when I was a little girl growing up in Michigan. I remember the fresh, deep snow and how difficult it was to walk in it. Every step sunk thigh high and it was a huge effort to take another step, it was exhausting, causing jelly legs that shook when you tried to stand on them, threatening to buckle under you.

There were times though when I would walk behind someone, usually an adult and I would very carefully follow in their footsteps. Each step they made packed the snow down and left an imprint for my smaller foot and that was the path I would take, carefully placing my foot in the footprint that they had left before me. I thoroughly enjoyed doing that and it has stuck tight in my mind for all these 30 plus years.

It is just like that with our Lord, you know. He has gone before us and His word tells us again and again to follow His path. After all, it is His righteousness that goes before us, and makes His footsteps our pathway. (Ps. 85:13) This is the only true and right path to take and He is the only true and right person to follow. It is like a careful placing of your foot in His already packed and secure imprint, the well beaten trail of the living Word that echos in your ear, “This is the way, walk in it, whether you turn to the right or the left.” (Is. 30:21) It is a looking straight ahead and fixing our eyes on what lies before. A marking out a straight path for our feet, the safe path, and not getting sidetracked. (Prov. 4:25-27) It’s a highway and it will be called the Way of Holiness. (Is. 35:8) A retracing of the steps of the great saints of old who have laid their lives bare, open and exposed for us to see. (Heb. 11)

Let us carefully place our feet behind the One who goes before, and follow the One who has hedged us behind and before and laid His hand upon us. (Ps. 139:5)

Photos taken in North Texas February 12, 2010

“Does the rain have a father?
Who gives birth to the dew?
 Who is the mother of the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
For the water turns to ice as hard as rock,
and the surface of the water freezes.

Job 38:28-30