Snow day

Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name. You are mine.      (Isaiah 43:1) 

           

Winters in Minnesota lake country in the 1950s & 60s were cold and snowy. Schools were often closed because the buses couldn’t get to the rural farmers or to the nearby Native American reservation. For us “grade-school townies” this was vacation, and we celebrated with our neighbor buddies by building snow forts and carving tunnels in the drifts. Sometimes those drifts were high as roof lines, and every kid in the block would join in as we scurried to the top, got a running start down the roof slope, and took flight into the deep powdery stuff. The whole day was exhilarating and exhausting. We celebrated “snow days.”

Paul and his kids on a Minnesota lake.

But inevitably the roads were cleared, and we’d return to our teachers. Not until I reached junior high did I come to realize that for half our school those fort-and-tunnel days were not “vacation!” The farms and the reservation homes were miles from grocery stores and often far from neighboring friends. They didn’t celebrate snow days; they celebrated the return to classmates and hot lunches.

So, the winters in Minnesota changed for me as I grew older, and so did the Christmas season especially. In those “fort and tunnel” days I hadn’t noticed that the owner of the town general store often tramped through deep snow to deliver groceries to some snow-stranded families on Christmas. Now I did. I became more aware of people beyond my small circle of neighbors and realized that what was my delight might be someone else’s burden. And I learned that every person mattered.

This is Isaiah’s message from God: “I have called you by name and you are mine.” I have called “you.” There are no exceptions, no qualifiers. And neither are there qualifiers at Christmas, that celebration season of the birth of Jesus who said “Love one another.” Again, no qualifiers. “Love one another.” Period.  “Called you by name.” Period. This is grace; this is Immanuel, God with us.

And during Advent we anticipate this grace and this unconditional love again.  Snow days or no snow days, Christmas is indeed a celebration for all.

Paul Olsen is a professor of English and coach at Augustana College.

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