Lake effect snow is snow that shouldn’t be there. It may be winter, but the skies are clear for everyone around us, and the weather patterns suggest upcoming sunshine in abundance.
And yet, we wake to two feet of white stuff. Call it icing on the landscape, or a cotton candy wonderland. We can label it whatever we want to call it. We’ve been hit with a storm, when there was no storm to hit us.
Where did it come from?
Lake effect snow doesn’t come from worldwide weather patterns. It doesn’t affect half the continent. It only impacts those who are in the right place at the right time and if the winds blow in the right direction.
Look at winter weather maps of western New York State, northern Ohio, or anyplace in Michigan. When the arctic dances across the Great Lakes, it picks up the warm waters and dumps them onto the U.S. side, giving us lake effect snow, while Canada basks in the sunshine.
One person can wake to a clear driveway, and a short distance away, the rest of us are shoveling our sidewalks.
God is our lake effect snow. He is the unexpected that makes the world around us beautiful even when good sense says he shouldn’t be there. When other people point to the sky and say, “Nothing’s there! No snow’s coming our way, dude!” we can see what already covers our landscape. It’s God, for he has a way of showing up even as the world says he can’t be there at all.
Let’s look at our LAKE EFFECT God:
L – He is the glory of LEBANON come to make us beautiful.
Isaiah 60:13 says: “The glory of LEBANON shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.”
We can dwell in the desert places or in the damp forests. God’s beauty will find us wherever we are, like a blanket of beautiful snow that shouldn’t be there at all.
A – He ANOINTS us with his glory and blessings.
Psalm 23:5 tells us: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou ANOINTEST my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
Our enemies do not determine the arrival of God’s blessings. God does, and when he decides it’s time to snow, expect a blizzard of beautiful proportions.
K – He brings us good words of KNOWLEDGE.
Ecclesiastes 12:9 explains how he “…taught the people KNOWLEDGE; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.”
These proverbs of knowledge are our dusting of snow. We receive them if we allow God to open our hearts to their truths.
E – He is our EIGHTH day.
Leviticus 23:36 falls amidst God’s instructions about the Feast of Tabernacles. He says, “Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the EIGHTH day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.”
We get a snow day! We get to stay home, take the opportunity to praise God for his goodness, and recoup our spiritual energy. Thank God for his snow!
E – He is our EZRA.
Ezra 7:10 states: “For EZRA had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”
The snowfall of the Lord is a change in direction. What has been is completely different. As with Ezra, God’s lake effect snow becomes a mandate to follow him in heart and soul.
F – He is FAVORABLE to those who worship him.
Job 33:26 encourages us: “He shall pray unto God, and [God] will be FAVORABLE unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for [God] will render unto man his righteousness.”
This verse is spoken to Job by one of his friends, but it carries the truth of God’s own voice. When we have our eyes on God, we are continually in the lake effect snow zone.
F – He FORMED us to worship him.
Isaiah 43:21 expresses our true purpose: “This people have I FORMED for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.”
His snows fall on his people. If we don’t see the snow, then we need to draw closer to God. After all, lake effect snows are, in all reality, God effect snows. We have to be at his side to receive them.
E – He is our EASTWARD location.
Genesis 2:8 describes our position: “And the Lord God planted a garden EASTWARD in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”
Eden is generally accepted as the state of perfection. It was eastward, the same direction the lake effect snows blow. When God covers us, his perfection is what surrounds us.
C – He wants us to be CHICKENS for him.
Matthew 23:37 exhorts the Jews: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her CHICKENS under her wings, and ye would not!”
Now he gathers the entire world, those who will come to him, and his snows are his outstretched wings, gifting us his blessings and grace as protection against the world in which we live.
T – He is the scarlet THREAD that tells the world we are his.
Joshua 2:18 offers salvation to Rahab the harlot: “Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet THREAD in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee.”
All the land may be brown with winter’s curse, but in the place of the lake effect snow, the world is white with beauty. Our scarlet thread is God’s love and hand of plenty, and when he covers us with the snows of his coming power, the world will know we are the children of the Almighty King.
When we get on the downwind side of God, he will shower his blessings all over us.
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