Extremes

After the longest night of the year, we were greeted by 11ºF this morning.  Not pleasant.  I wanted to curl up in front of the fireplace, but Christina needed us, so out we went. 

This life we have chosen requires a commitment that no job has ever asked of me.  It means going out every morning and every evening, including Christmas Day.  Christina needs to be fed and milked.  The steers need to be fed and the shed cleaned.  The chickens need fed and eggs collected.  We confine these animals so we have a responsibility toward them.  And so we go, when it's cold, when it's hot, and when we'd rather not.

The misery of these cold morning milkings are abated by how pleasant Christina is.  She always seems happy to see us and so eager to please.  It's almost magical the way I just touch her hip and she straightens up in the stanchion.  And her udder is so warm in my cold hands.  She is such a nice cow.

As cold as it is outside, it is as warm and pleasant in front of the fire.  Our basement family room has become the center of the house.  Last week, most of the homeschooling migrated to this room.  This week we've been watching movies, reading, and playing games in the very same spot.

Over the holidays are we reading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" aloud as a family.  I'm intimately familiar with the story, but have never read the book.  The writing is so much more engaging than I expected. 

These temperature extremes are reminders of the extremes in life, but I am being shown how God is in all of it.  God is in the warmth.  God is in the cold.  God cannot be confined to only the good things in life, but God brings life and love to all things and all times.