Creation

It was raining when I left for church this morning, but by the time I arrived at Grace the flakes of snow were thick and fat, sticking to the ground and covering the road with slush.

It was hard to stay focused on the service today; the back wall of the church is essentially a wall of glass looking out over the woods, and as I watched the steady fall of snow I kept thinking, "This is my body, broken for you" and seeing the blessings piling up.

Waiting to shake Bill's hand on the way out, I caught sight of two deer, eyeing us all from the wide circle of grass and trees that defines the inner center of the parking spaces. We called a greeting, and they leaped off to the left, but when I went to my car they were standing there, waiting for me. I greeted them again; they turned and strolled into the woods.

This morning's psalm seemed to describe the starquilt image I'd created last night for today's poetry blog, and the Gospel lesson was one I'd remembered discussing earlier in the week -- was that a dream? The song Ann played during communion also had echoes of an earlier encounter; everything was feeling connected, as if I were floating in a lacy web.

I'd overheard my husband last night saying how much he missed New England, so after driving home through the snow (which turned to rain again before I reached my house) I insisted he come out with me for coffee, so he could have a taste of the New England beauty that surrounds us here today. (This local landmark, Frog Rock, sits right at the corner where the rain began to turn to snow). And he said our girls had called again, on their way to the airport in Vermont, and that there it is sunny and warm; quite the contrast.

And now, as I settle back down at my computer to work on a series of fog images for an upcoming show, I hear the foghorns blowing across the sound; outside my window there is only white, as far as I can see. On the way out of church I chose at random a word for my week from the collection of folded papers in the Lenten wordbasket. And this week's word is what it's all about:

Creation.