Her First Snow

Between Christmas and New Year's, I got to be a part of an amazing experience with a good friend of mine, Monique.  She came to visit St. Louis to stay with me for a couple days, along with another coworker from our summer together in Tampa, named Katie.  Monique has lived in Florida her entire life, and had never seen snow.  I remember skyping with her in November, and her asking me the question of whether or not snow would be a possibility.  December's usually pretty cold, and I told her there would be a pretty good chance! I started praying that God would bless her time in St. Louis and provide snow, so that she could experience it.  As the days got closer, it was 60 degrees in St. Louis two days before Christmas.  I started to get worried that she wouldn't get to see any snowfall, but ultimately knew that our time together would be great no matter the weather!  We weren't expecting any snow in the forecast, and it was rainy the day I picked the girls up from the airport.  We went to dinner, and spent some time with my mom.  The next morning, I was asleep in the basement, and saw that Monique was calling my phone.  I answered the call in my raspy still half asleep voice.  "Lyndsey... it snowed," I heard her say.  A huge smile came onto my face, and I went upstairs to find her standing outside on the deck barefoot in the inch or so of snow.  She was making snow balls, and feeling it in her hands, and taking picture after picture.  She was absolutely delighted, and that delight was so contagious.  We went outside and made her first snowman.  We threw snowballs.  And crazy Monique made a snow angel, not caring one bit about getting her jeans wet.  The snow didn't last long; it was mostly melted by that afternoon.  But it was such a clearly answered prayer, it was like it was just for her.  Just a little gift from God that He knew would bring her such joy.  He loves to give us good gifts!  So many times, we think of God as this Being who is always condemning us and saying no to our prayers and putting difficult circumstances in our lives and saying, "Take that!"  We think of Him as a God of No, rather than a God of Yes.  Seeing the pure, innocent joy that Monique had from God's creation blew me away.  We can't get that kind of delight from the latest version of an iPad or television.  Nothing manmade can bring us the kind of joy that God does.  His very presence in our lives is what our joy is founded on.  All of His creation is just a tiny sliver of the goodness of Him, and the magnitude of how big He is.  What a sweetly answered prayer, a wonderful gift for my cherished friend!