cold

In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan; earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone….. I think, if you are reading this in the UK at this present moment, you will probably realise what might have inspired Christina Rossetti back in 1872 to write these words even if over in the Middle East the weather never gets quite as cold as this! Today they announced that the weather is just two degrees warmer than the South Pole. I realise that the southern hemisphere is basking in its summer heat but even so …!

It is truly incredible what mankind has discovered and pioneered in the last 100 years. To think that at the turn of the 19^th to the 20^th century there were no aeroplanes, computers, phones, televisions etc. etc. and now we take the most amazing of personal gizmos as common place. And yet the power of the tiny snowflake brings our nation to its knees in less than an hour.

Back in the days of Moses, Egypt was the world power of its day. The Egyptians were able to hold in slavery a nation of two million people and had the most advanced defence system known at that time. The Egyptians were hugely religious. They worshipped everything going. The mighty River Nile was highly revered. From its source in Burundi in Central Africa it flows for 4160 miles all the way to the Mediterranean. Its importance to Egypt is immense. In an area of desert, searing heat and negligible rainfall, the river ensures that Egypt remains fertile and food plentiful. When times got tough for the complaining Israelites, out in the desert on their way to the lands that God had promised, they said in Numbers chapter 11 v5 ‘We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic’.  No wonder the river became an object of worship. Where people reject the living God they will begin to worship that which affects them most. We are born to worship. We will bow the knee to something.

God can bring powerful people, proud and rebellious people, unjust and unkind people, to their knees. He did with cruel, religious Saul, on his way to Damascus to drag Jesus' followers to their deaths, by knocking him off his horse and blinding him for several days. His life was dramatically changed and he found the true object of his love and affection. He did it to the Egyptians as the water of the Nile turned to blood and then brought the nation down through frogs, flies and gnats. He just reminds us every now and then who really is in charge. He can even do it in our day with the wrong kind of snow!

Let us acknowledge how tiny we are and how great and powerful, loving and kind He is. He brings us to our knees by the tiny snowflake. Let us be quicker to fall to our knees in worship, praise and adoration.