"I feel seasons in the air, and I feel blessings everywhere." For those who are not familiar, those words come from an old Donald Lawrence album.
The air has gotten colder since our record temperatures in DC back during the Thanksgiving and Christmas timeframes. Honestly enough, that season was winter also. People failed to acknowledge the winter and found themselves wrapped in shorts and short sleeve shirts. I couldn't afford to get sick so I marvelled at their defiance for the weather and went along.
But just as someone gets slapped for no reason, we have been slapped by cold weather. Imagine that...cold weather in January and February? No real snow storm...yet. No frozen power lines...yet. No 25 car pile up on the roads...yet. Yet we complain about how cold it is. But have we truly ever stopped to recognize the cold that the homeless and those who cannot afford to pay their electric bill face? I know that the blankets and clothes that are donated and the extra money that is put forward to pay into the electric fund won't do it. I am saddened that we have this homelessness, especially in the cold. I am complaining!
"Oh my it is cold!", Karen uttered the other day. She had on a coat, scarf, hat, gloves and probably had long johns on underneath but still complained. God had provided her with the finances to afford all that she had or she had received the items as gifts. No matter how they were obtained, she was protected from the elements as best she could. My heart wept the other day watching the news when I saw that a lady with Alzheimer's wandered from the place in which she stayed without a coat on and died in this cold. I can only imagine that the cold was the earthly culprit, but I am sure God called her on.
So the next time we utter as to how cold it is, remember that God provides and we should count our blessings, not our inconveniences. To endure the cold from the house to the car is temporary. To endure the cold from the house to the metro is brutal, but again temporary. To endure the cold because that is your home for whatever reason, keep these brothers and sisters in prayer. As a friend said today, "we all could be one paycheck away from joining the ranks".
