If you haven't heard, DC has been under a "snowpocalypse" since last Friday. In about 24 hours we got over 2 feet of snow (close to, if not surpassing the record). It literally shut down the entire city through the weekend and into the work week. I awoke to a blanket of white outside our home on Saturday morning, with people skiing past my front door to get around. Mind you I live next to the Supreme Court. As I write this on Monday night, four days after the snow first hit, the Federal Government has closed their offices for the second day in a row. Everyday that the Fed has to close is estimated to cost $100 million. Expensive "grown-up snow days" as I like to call them.
What has struck me most about these past few days is the reminder they serve to the feebleness of man. One of the women in my office used to work for the OPM office that decides on the Fed's office closings. It is no doubt a big decision to take on, especially with that price tag. She sent us a verse out of Job that they would be reminded of as they debated whether to close or not. I think it speaks for itself:
Job 37
1 "At this my heart pounds
and leaps from its place.
2 Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,
to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.
4 After that comes the sound of his roar;
he thunders with his majestic voice.
When his voice resounds,
he holds nothing back.
5 God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
6 He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,'
and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'
7 So that all men he has made may know his work,
he stops every man from his labor.
DC is a power-driven town. They say what money is to New York, and looks are to LA, power is to DC. Even one of the most powerful cities in the world cannot withstand the power of nature. With all of the technology, progress, and influence this town exerts, it was stopped by a more powerful hand, one that turns Capital Hill into a playground for children and adults for a few days rather than the political powerhouse it is known as. But even the "wind and the waves" obeyed Christ. Now that is something to dwell on in when you're sitting in a house with two-feet of snow piled up in front of your door.
As I walked around the Capital building on Saturday afternoon when the snow finally let up, I felt as though I was living in a dream world, or the set of some expensive post-apocalyptic movie where the Capital is reverted to a place for children, not grown men and women. The snow storm also had this way of fostering community in this normally recluse city. The streets were no longer normal streets for two days, but rather one big snow route where feet actually ruled over tires. People were out all over the place joining in snow fights, offering a hand to shovel sidewalks, offering up one another's sleds so people could have a chance to "play" too. It was beautiful. Something transformed in this city for two days, and it all happened when the most type-A population of people were reminded to sit down for a bit. I smile just thinking about it.
"I fancy the beauties of nature are a secret God has shared with us alone. That may be one of the reasons why we were made- and why the resurrection of the body is an important doctrine." - C.S. Lewis
