the love of the lord is just like... snowpants. duh.

walking down the street earlier tonight i saw a young family, all bundled up thanks to the already outrageously cold madison weather. just as i was about to pass them, their little boy who was bundled head to toe and couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3 years old tripped and ate it on the sidewalk right next to me. i gasped, horrified, and instantly bent down to see if he needed help up. to my surprise, though, he just popped up, unfazed and kept bumbling along.

what saved him? his snow pants. those awkwardly puffy, only-come-in-disgusting-neon-colors, sweat-while-you-try-to-put-them-on torture devices. for my southern “snow is a foreign and fascinating concept to me” friends like the beautiful megan liss, here is a visual of what i’m talking about.




maybe this was just me but i HATED these things when i was little. i hated the concept of pants on top of pants. i hated that they only came in a dweeby suspender format. i hated how they swished when you walk, or should i say hobbled, around. i h.a.t.e.d them.

seeing this little boy take a tumble, though, got me to thinking: living a life that seeks the lord and his unfailing love for us is a lot like snow pants. stick with me here.

a few days ago i was eating caflouti (yes, that’s a real word and not another nicole-made-up one, feel free to look it up) and having deep lifey discussions with my great friend katherine “smushy mcsmushsmush” usher. talking we hit on something really simple, but really real.

life gets hard sometimes. it gets dark and cold and scary and uninviting just like wisconsin winter weather can be. and when this happens we have two options: we can “bundle up” and brave the weather or we can stay secluded inside, intimidated and inactive.

“bundling up” or putting on our snow pants, is a lot like discovering the love of the lord in a hard time i think. sometimes, like i said, you literally sweat trying to get the darn things on. trying to get them on and comfortable is the last thing you want to do. it’s hard work. and sometimes, when wearing them, you stick out a little bit. you’re different.

that aside, once your snow pants are on and you’re headed outside, they provide a protection unlike anything else. even in the coldest winter weather, snow pants provide a warmth and joy and safety and freedom unlike anything else. as proven to me by the little boy, snow pants can protect you from even the scariest and most seemingly dangerous falls. the layers and layers of fluff fight off any scraped knees or bruised butts. snow pants also give you such joy and freedom. someone wearing jeans and tennis shoes wouldn’t think twice about trouncing through piles of fresh snow, but snow panted-up, you have the freedom to race through waist high snow or lay down on your back, face to the sky flapping your arms and legs trying desperately to make a snow angel.

so, what i think i’ve gotten from this silly analogy and my conversation with kath, as well as just what i’ve seen in my own life, is that things gets hard sometimes. plans don’t work out as you’d anticipated they would, people hurt you, you just feel scared or anxious or unsure about something- you name it. but in those times, if only you decide to seek out the peace and love the lord is dyingggg to offer you by “putting on your snow pants”, there is complete safety and reassurance and pure, simply joy to be found.