Winter's Parting Gift

On Monday, we got what is likely the last big snowstorm of the season and it hit us here in the New Jersey suburbs to the tune of 8-10 inches. Not overwhelming, certainly not as bad as the spring blizzard I remember returning to college to from Spring Break in 1993, but significant enough to cause me work from home (generally in vain, as my little basement office faced frequent interruptions around topics such as *knock,knock* "Umm... Daddy, Sophia's touching my trains", *knock,knock* "Daddy, I just wanted to tell you that Sophia's taking a nap" and such).

One of the benefits is the father-son bonding time in shoveling the snow, and I have to say that Daniel is actually getting better at moving snow away from the walkway and onto the grass as opposed to simply spreading it around. Naturally, the value in him shoveling with me has very little to do with diminished labor on my part. I just love the fact that he's so enthusiastic to help, and joyfully takes direction and suggestions.

I particularly appreciate the lessons that he learns in terms of shared responsibility and the importance of "loving thy neighbor" as take the time to help finish of the driveway of our next-door neighbor. It's great that he's so happy about serving others in this way, where I ask him to "finish off that little pile in front of Dr. Riva's garage door", he excitedly says, "Okay!" and runs over with his shovel. It's almost as if I offered him candy.

Perhaps that's one of the elements of the child-like faith that Jesus speaks about. Isn't it a tragic phenomena when we "mature" into adulthood and view serving others as a chore and burden instead of a joy and privilege? If only we all could embrace the joy and appreciation, as Daniel does at this age, of having the capacity to help another person.

In many ways, isn't it an aspect of our stewardship and recognition of our talents and abilities as being God-owned and gifted as opposed to entitled and earned? Our attitude would then not be one of "Oh great, now what do I have to do," but rather "How cool is it that God has given me today the capacity and opportunity to help someone else?"