Most of us know what snowcrete feels like, even if we’ve never used the word. It’s a wild combination of  heavy snow and then heavy sleet on January 25th that froze solid in the persistent cold and turned into something like concrete that never seems to want to melt.

 

But snowcrete can be related to life. It’s that layer that forms when stress, disappointment, or nonstop chaos freezes over the softer parts of us. It’s the emotional version of icy crust on driveways: hard, cold, and stubborn. Bang, bang, chip at it all day, but it doesn’t move until something warm hits it.

 

People can be the same way. We thaw in the presence of warmth such as kindness, patience, compassion, or even just by someone who sees us without judgment. Think of the classic Christmas movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  In the movie, one genuine act of warmth shifted the Grinch’s entire heart!

 

In the Bible Jesus keeps showing up as that warmth. He’s not flashy or loud; Instead, he’s a steady, human, presence. Also in the Bible, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, (1Corinthians 13:8) says that “Love never fails.” Paul is not talking about the St. Valentine’s card version of love, but the kind that listens before it gets angry and chooses mercy over being right. That kind of love melts through the snowcrete we don’t always admit we’re banging away at.

 

Now at last we begin the melting process of the snowcrete outside! And for us, warmth, real warmth, still works both here in Montgomery County, in the U.S., and overseas.  A warm heart can soften a tense room. It can interrupt a cycle of bitterness. It can turn a stranger into a neighbor. It can even thaw something inside us that we thought was permanently frozen. Yes, more snow and ice may come both outside and within. But warmth changes the temperature enough for hope to breathe again within us and others!