Frosted Breath and Happiness

It's dipping into the 40s here in Bellingham, and I couldn't be happier.

No, I don't mean the decade. Sure, I'm sad we don't have the ability to dabble in time travel, but for now I must resign myself to speaking merely of temperature. In short, it's getting colder, and I couldn't be happier. I know I don't share this opinion with the vast majority of the world, something which I've been confronted with increasingly as of late.

Before I go any further, NO, I do not feel this way solely because I am from Alaska. (In frustrated monotone) Just because a place is cold does not mean I in turn must love the cold because I lived there. Also, no one rides moose.

Slight frustration aside, I'm glad people have been asking me why I like the cold, because I've been thinking more as a result (always a good activity, in my opinion). Why is it that I like the cold? Why do I think one of the best feelings in the world is when you walk outside in -15 degree weather and you feel your nose freeze? The more I think on this, the more I realize it's not just a matter of preference. Thankfully, it's deeper than that.

A certain part of the Bible speaks on how humanity has been given "dominion" over the Earth. Other translations say we have been set as "stewards over creation." Both of these wordings suggest some element of control, and shoot dang have we done a good job of living this out. I believe that, most of the time, we (humans) think ourselves to be fundamentally in control of the world. Be it the fact that we control what food comes out of what ground, or that we can harness the power of everything from lumps of coal to the sun itself to power our creations, we usually look around this world and think "yeah, we've got this under control."

The cold slaps this idea right in the face. The cold reminds us that creation should be respected.

Sure, other kinds of weather can have a similar impact. Ask someone who's lived through a hurricane what that experience was like. From what I've learned, it fundamentally changes a person. The cold is unique, however, in an important way. The cold doesn't smack you in the face with how powerful nature can be. It subtly strikes deeper.

Think about what you do when it gets cold. You crank the heat in your house (if you're a college student, you precede this step with a miserable two months of trying not to turn the heat on), you bundle up in all manner of fuzzy and puffy fabrics, and you suddenly love either reading or television infinitely more than you did two months ago because those things aren't outside. We try everything we can to keep the cold away, and yet it never leaves, not until it's good and ready.

We do this because something in us knows that cold can hurt us, even if it isn't overtly threatening. The cold acts as our latent reminder that their are elements to creation that we cannot control. That this world has been made in a way which is somehow beyond us, forever outside our ability to conquer. God made something powerful. This is yet another example of how creation echoes the creator. It is beautiful, it provides, it moves us deeply. It's also a bit dangerous, and calls for us to respect it.

I like to think deeper on things than I need to. Thank you all for joining me in this, my simultaneous assertion that God is really cool, and that I am allowed to like the cold for far more interesting reasons than where I happen to be from. I hope an absolutely blessed winter awaits you.

With His love and grace,

Taylor