When it Rains it Pours

People say that deaths are in 3's. Interesting theory. People say a lot of things, ever noticed? Some people say "if one more thing goes wrong they'll scream!" At least, that's what I've heard. Others say, "The walls are crumbling in around them." I've never seen anyone walk around with walls all around them so I don't know how they could crumble. Must be a metaphorical thing. Then there are those who claim it is "sheer chaos" around them. I've seen chaos in the movies and never seen someone surrounded by it. While I don't really understand all this maybe there is a thread of truth to all of them. Maybe what people are really saying is "When it Rains it Pours!" Maybe what people are really saying is that life can get quite overwhelming at times. Maybe.

Have you ever stood in the snow, hands extended out, trying to catch just one snow flake? I have. I don't know about you, but in my experience it is WAY hard to accomplish. You see, there are SO many flakes the first obstacle to overcome is how do you choose just one flake? How to center all of your efforts on that one, perfect snow flake that fulfills all that you hope to find? Or maybe the snow flake is not perfect but more of what opportunity presents to you, but there are still problems. How do you segregate that one snow flake before you from ALL the others falling at your feet? You can't.

Ok, well then there's plan B. Simply broaden the scope of your endeavor include multiple snow flakes. Well then you have a whole slew of new obstacles. Now that you have "caught" multiple snow flakes how do you discern where one ends and another begins? How do you preserve them in their original state? You can't.

Well, maybe you lower your expectations yet again and decide to allow yourself to seek multiple snow flakes which you will not be able to differentiate from one another and upon your own touch will lose their original individuality only to take on another form entirely. Alright, we can live with that right? But it doesn't end there, soon in the palm of your hand the snow flake will cease to exist entirely. Instead, you have a puddle of water which you had no desire to possess. You know not from where it came and you have no idea what to do with it. Perfect!

Snow flakes are a little bit like life I think. They keep coming and you try to catch just one because that is all you can handle, all you can process, all you can begin to identify and adjust to. But it's never just one snow flake you catch because regardless of how hard you try they always stick together. They actually collect together and as individuals are unrecognizable. There is no way to identify which snow flake is the original and which came later. I think life is like that. Stuff keeps coming at us, we try and separate it but it's nearly impossible. Soon we can't remember or differentiate between what is new stuff and what is old stuff. Sometimes old stuff even becomes new stuff, how's that for confusing?! Like the snow flakes it's so overwhelming to know where to begin. How to separate the snow flakes, er I mean stuff of life so that it can be seen as whatever it really is.

Sometimes snow flakes are beautiful and sometimes they turn ugly. So weird to think that something so beautiful could be as ugly, cold and painful as the sleet we've all seen. Life is totally like that. There are moments of beauty and sheer brilliance, but it can turn so quickly to ugliness and pain. Sometimes we don't even know where it comes from or how it snuck up on us, but we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of it nonetheless. Sometimes it feels overwhelming and hopeless.

But maybe like the snow flake, life's true beauty is seen when we step back and see it all. See it in all it's "stuff". The good, the beautiful, the painful, the scary, the joys, the ugly, the restoration, the brokenness, the hope that all add up to a life. A real and true life. We can't separate any of it from the other or we loose the fullness of the picture. Like a snow flake separated from the snow fall looses it's place in the storm.

I don't know what it all means. I don't know how we handle the snow storm, the rain storm, the chaos ensuing around us. But I do know that the snow flakes each have their place in the storm and when it rains it definitely pours.