Where did the winter go?

Well, as I sit down to write this there’s a biting North Easterly wind and wintry showers outside. On TV there’s the Winter Olympics, with plenty of snowy pictures. The ‘severe’ winter we were promised hasn’t happened yet, kept at bay by westerly winds, with Eastern Europe copping it instead. Russia is where the cold winter is, with temperatures well below –30°C - even harsher than they would normally expect. It’s hard for us to imagine extremes of temperature like that.

All this has reminded me of the snowflake -

There’s something magical about the snowflake.

Maybe when you read this Spring will be well on its way, longer days, and the warmth of the sun on our backs. But before we look at the snowflake, let us briefly look at the topic so much in discussion today.

Global Warming

It is a concern for a lot of people today. What are we doing to planet Earth? Are we out of control? What will be left for the next generation? Do we think about the consequences of our actions?

Scientists are concerned that the natural fluctuation in temperature has been overtaken by a rapid human-induced warming that has serious implications for the stability of the climate on which much life on the planet depends.

God created Man & Woman and placed them on the earth to look after it. They were given dominion over the whole of creation to take care of it.

Humankind has a great capacity to invent and build, it also has a capacity to pull down and destroy.

There is a growing scientific consensus that, even on top of the natural variability of the climate, something out of the ordinary is happening and humans are to blame.

So, will man destroy this planet and all living on it? Well, we have this reassuring promise from God the creator of heaven and earth that HE will not allow it -

While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease
[Genesis 8v22]

That’s one promise God gives to mankind. Day and night will continue and the seasons will come and go.

The Snowflake

It seems that the snowflake will be with us for some time yet.

We could ask the question, ‘What shape is a Snowflake?’ The answer - snowflake-shaped. The snowflake is an enigma.

In the book of Job in our Bible we read Job 38v22 ‘Have you entered into the treasures of the snow?’ It is one of the mysteries of nature. Billions and billions of snow flakes fall in a snow storm, yet to our knowledge each one is a different shape; no two flakes observed so far have been identical. And yet they are all hexagon shaped, with six copies of the same tree-liked branches for each flake.

There are many patterns in nature that give order in a senseless random world! It all points to a Designer & Sustainer, a God that is in control of His creation.

So let us remember the promise God has given us that ‘Winter and summer, shall not cease’, but that even though God is in control we still have a responsibility to look after the beautiful world He has provided for us.

Why not come along to our talks and find out more about the Promises God has given to you and me?

Bible quotations are taken from the New King James version