Chance of Snow

Georgia is pretty well in the deep pocket of the American South, and Fort Valley, the town we live in, is just about smack dab in the middle of the state. You didn't have to ace Geography class to know that means we don't make many snowmen around here. In fact, we get a lot more tornado warnings than forecasts for anything frozen to fall from the sky. Humid subtropical, I believe, is the official classification for our climate. That's best described as a place having long, hot summers and short, mild winters with ample rainfall coming throughout the year. Anchorage, Alaska, we are not.

My beloved and I were once on a ski trip to the great state of Colorado. The TV weather folks said that a storm would roll in one afternoon, bringing with it 8-12 inches of snow that would tumble to the ground overnight. They said this with the same degree of certainty with which I would predict that members of opposing political parties would disagree over a piece of legislation. No one harbored even the slightest doubt that the snow was barreling down on them.

And they went about their business with complete nonchalance. Nothing, absolutely nothing, changed. It was a big, collective So What?.

"Can you imagine how different it would be back home if they were predicting this kind of snow?" I asked my wife as we trudged into a grocery store.

Regina laughed and pointed out that it wouldn't take 8-12 inches of the white stuff to rock our Southern world. She was 100% correct. We cancel school before the first flake falls, and they'll send the little boogers home if word comes that it's snowing in Alabama. Grocery stores become madhouses as people rush to buy bread and milk (I've never understood why all Georgians run out of bread and milk at the mention of snow!). People line up at gas pumps, and I once heard that radio stations had commercials for soup pre-recorded and ready to be aired when snow is forecast. Convinced that snow will cripple the power grid, we also stock up on candles, flashlights, and batteries, and you'd be amazed how many homes have generators just in case.

Last year, Fort Valley received our first appreciable snow in more than a decade. That storm was a freak; the Gulf Coast of Alabama and West Florida got more than ten inches, and we got something around five, I'd say. The mountains of North Georgia got very little. It was a dream come true for a snow nut like me, but I figured, given the historical trends, that I'd be past 70 (I'm 62 now) when Fort Valley got another decent snow.

Well, maybe not. It's Friday evening, January 16, and the weather gurus are telling us there's a chance, albeit a small one, that we might get a little fun stuff over the weekend. OK, it's not just a small chance, but a tiny one. I don't care. I'm a kid at heart, and I'm excited. And, yes, we went to Kroger this afternoon to get . . . bread and milk.

There is a point to this meandering rumination. It is that we must remember that we do not know the future. Nobody knows what the stock market is going to do; predictions about global geopolitics are little more than guesses. New viruses may arise; the economy may falter. I wouldn't bet a dollar on November's upcoming elections. Somebody may come out with a new invention, and somewhere out there, there's a team working in a lab and they might just bring us a medical breakthrough.

We just don't know. That's the truth. And we certainly don't know when it comes to our individual lives. Joys and triumphs, challenges and heartaches, tremendous suffering, hardship and grief, may come our way. Maybe some of it all. Again, we just don't know, especially when it comes to the particulars.

But here's what we do know. As believers in Jesus, we know the One who will walk with us into our future. He promised to be with us to the end of the world. He assured us that we'd never face a day, or a minute, alone. He'll hold us in the palm of His hand. No matter what, no matter where.

In case you're wondering, it did snow that night in Colorado. The next morning, the school buses were rolling, and people weren't scrambling to buy bread and milk. But, boy oh boy, was I smiling!