02.06.2026 | Ordinary Friday

Snow Steps
the paths we choose
 
In the early morning light, the little Doodle girl and I stepped into the chill for her walkabout through the neighborhood. The snow is finally beginning to melt, but remnants still linger in shady corners. Footsteps remain from some earlier pilgrim trying to make their way through a frozen world.
 
Those snowy footsteps remind me how often we try to forge our own path alone. We move through a chaotic world filled with anger and resentment, and too often I think I can manage it all by myself. But beneath the snow are hidden entanglements just waiting to trip up an old man like me. A broken sidewalk can turn an ankle. A fallen branch can send me tumbling. And these days, a fall is no longer a simple stumble, it’s something I may not rise from on my own.
 
These are the moments when I remember that I can’t do this thing alone. The journey is never easy. All the precautions, the heavy boots, the woolen gloves and hat, the walking stick, cannot shield us from every pain or hardship. But those snow steps ahead of us can help. They prepare a way for the times when the journey gets hard. They lead us home. They lead us safely.
 
Each snowy step we make is a choice. A simple, daily choice about which way we will go. Do we choose kindness? Do we choose love? Faith? Hope? Or do we take a wrong turn, walk away, and follow despair and anger instead?
 
The snow steps we follow are a gentle reminder that there is a loving Creator who wants us to cherish this life we have been given. A Creator who invites us to make the most of this journey before it melts away like the snow beneath our feet.
 
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
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