Today, today, today...it snowed all day long. Living on a hill makes weather more extreme, so we had 5 inches by 6 pm while down in the village they had 1/2 an inch. The trees and lilac bushes are already green, and with this unexpected abundance of snow, they are weighed down. It is a strange sight for sure. So unnatural, even disturbing. This reminded me of myself, and what happens when I lose focus of God. My Creator has ensured that I have room to grow, fertile soil to live in, and light to feed from. Because of His love, I have grown day by day into a healthy, green plant. He takes pride in me and loves to look at me. I have every reason to be happy and peaceful. But, sometimes an unexpected storm comes. Heavy troubles and concerns weigh down on me until my young leaves are hidden and my countenance changes. Everything around me is clouded and weighed down so that my vision gets blurred. My Creator knows that the storm has hit me hard, but He is not worried. He knows that a warm breeze is coming my way, with sunshine to melt the heavy snow. He controls the storms, after all. My take o the situation is different. All I see is the snow, and it is still falling. All I feel is the weight of my circumstances. I cannot feel the warm rays of sunlight, and I begin to believe that they will never come again. I feel that I am alone. My happiness turns into self-pity and my singing into crying. Just as I cannot predict surprise snowstorms that come in late April, we cannot know or understand when storms will come our way in life. But nothing is a surprise to our Creator! When our focus on Him gets blocked or swayed by storms (big or small), His focus on us remains steady! We may feel alone and abandoned. We may see nothing but the difficulties around us. God, the one who planted us and ensured our growth, sees what we do not. He sees how we will be after the storm, when we have cried out to Him. He knows that Spring is coming! When it does, we will be all the more beautiful because our Planter has seen us through.