Doesn’t the boy in the photo (not me) look like he’s having the time of his life? Although you may never have ridden your bike as the snow began to fall, I hope there has been a time in your life when you experienced abounding joy! I’m also hoping you’ve had that joy more than once!

One of the times I experienced over-the-top joy was the time I saw my first snow fall. Our family moved from Southern California to McPherson, Kansas when I was in third grade. I attended a two story brick school, with lots of windows for this eight-year-old to daydream through.

Although I sat in a center row, I sat far enough toward the back to keep my eyes on the teacher but mind and peripheral vision out those windows. One day in early December something outside the glass caught my attention. Some white blur moving slightly left to right, but falling! My eyes slashed toward the windows to focus and my head followed to comprehend. What is that?!? “SNOW,” I shouted out as I leaped from my desk chair and bounded to the windows to see my first snow fall, as up close and personal as possible!

“It’s snowing! Look, snow,” I shouted with my nose pressed against the cool window, moving quickly to another pane because my shouts had steamed up the prior.

Just as suddenly as I had realized and broken the silence of study with my discovery of snow fall, I became aware of my lone enthusiasm. I peaked over my shoulder toward the chalk board to see my teacher’s mouth agape. “Was she dumbfounded by the weather as well?” I soon realized that she was reacting to me.

I don’t remember her exact words, but I do remember her tone and the tone of laughter from my classmates as I made my way back to my seat at her direction. One of the comments I do recall, “Haven’t you seen snow before?” I didn’t answer her, at least I knew I shouldn’t do that, but, no, I hadn’t ever seen snow fall.

That was a tough Fall and early Winter. Lots of firsts and no friends to share them with.

In the book, “Life Together”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that “Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies…On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God.” As Christians, we too are placed smack dab in the middle of a world full of evildoers and mockers. But Bonhoeffer reminds us of God’s consoling promises to His scattered people, “scattered like seed ‘into all the kingdoms on earth’ (Deuteronomy 28:25). ‘I will…gather them; for I have redeemed them;…and they shall return” (Zechariah 10:8,9).

When will that happen? It has happened in Jesus Christ, who died “that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:52), and it will finally occur visibly at the end of time when the angels of God “shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). Until then, God’s people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ,” His Holy Spirit (The Helper) and His Word (The Word became Flesh).

And according to Bonhoeffer, “God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian need another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs a brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation.”

Yes, we are to be disciples (Matthew 28:19) but also instructed to encourage one another and build up (Thessalonians 4:18, 5:11, Hebrews 10:25)., and as Bonhoeffer points out, “God Himself taught us to meet one another as God has met us in Christ. ‘Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God’ (Romans 15:7).” He later adds, “Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us…it remains so for all the future and to all eternity.

“The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more everything else between us will recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us.” How amazingly close that is in and through Jesus, so that no one stands at the window watching snow fall alone or any other first!

I pray God’s blessings and joy in Christ and fellowship each day and every day for each and every one of you! “The fellowship of believers,” Bonhoeffer writes, “is woven into the Christmas story, the baptism, the miracles and teaching, the suffering, dying, and rising again of Jesus Christ. It participates in the very events that occurred on this earth for the salvation of the world, and in doing so receives salvation in Jesus Christ.”

Peace and joy,
Steve

twitter/instagram: @stevedubu1