"The heavens declare the glory of God; 
the skies proclaim the work of the Holy One's hands."
~Psalm 19:1

The cold has lingered for many days now in Minnesota. We are not alone in this. Indeed, it seems, all over the country the cold is holding even those unaccustomed to frigid temperatures in its grasp. I think it is safe to say that most people do not like the cold. I have to admit that I am one of those rarities….I do love this weather. 

I love how we have to dress with care, in layers, to ward off the danger of frostbite. There is something primal and exciting about it. I love how the temperature and its usually accompanying sunshine causes everything, trees, snow, sky, to be clear and crisp to the eye. I love how the cold causes the usually invisible exhaust of factory, heating systems and even human breath to become visible to us. Look! There is the heat….visible! Look! There is the very breath that gives me life……visible!

Yesterday I drove across the Wabasha Bridge in downtown St. Paul and saw the steam rising from the Excel Energy plant. This billowing cloud rose straight up in the air like a fountain only, instead of water, what escaped was a formation that danced and undulated with the wind, swirling like a painter's brush against the sky. As I watch the people walking to their individual destinations their heads are ringed in the cloud of their own breath encasing them in life itself. I am watching out my window right this minute as the steam of the heat that is warming the parsonage next door shoots up from the ground where the vent allows this exchange of air to escape.

I am reminded of the times when we speak of the definition of a sacrament: an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. How like a sacrament this visible air is! Throughout the rest of the seasons these same things are happening. Heat is being produced. People and all living things are breathing. And yet this miracle is invisible to us. It is only in these days when the cold holds us captive that the invisible becomes visible. Perhaps this is not only a gift of physics or chemistry but also a gift of Spirit. Perhaps these days when life lies hidden below the many layers of snow and ice, when the greenness of living is either a memory or a dream,  is the time we most need to be reminded that the Breath of Life is still moving, still inhaling and exhaling.

There are so many things that are invisible to us and yet exist none-the-less. The blood is flowing through my veins right now for which I am thankful. I am also thankful that I cannot see this miracle being moved by my heart's steady beat. I am happy to simply trust its invisible work. People are praying for me, for you, for the world, right now, people I know and do not know. They are doing invisible work that may, through the grace of God, become as visible as the steam clouds rising all over this landscape. Others are giving their lives to acts of love and compassion, many invisible, yet whose results will be visible in the healing and hope they produce.

Today, as I walk through this Dr. Zhivago world where ice and snow surround me at every turn, I want to notice each puff of steamy cloud that rises. I want to place my prayers on its flowing stream allowing them to rise ever upward and outward. If grace is the sacrament I believe it to be, perhaps the invisible will become visible in a sacrament of hope. I invite you to do the same. I am sure of at least this…..it couldn't hurt.