Gingerbread World

Our first snow of the season came yesterday around noon and lasted all day. It wasn’t a blizzard; just slow and steady – creating an optic white plush blanket over our world.

This morning the white against the brown wood of our deck looks so much like a gingerbread village that I can’t help but make the comparison. Scallops of white fluff against the ginger colored vertical slats remind me of the perfect idyllic scenes our family has tried to make from dough and sugar frosting in holidays past.

Sometimes we used a kit – pre-cut squares pasted together with pre-mixed mortar (icing). Gumdrops and colored sugar dots dressed them up a bit. But they were created just to look at. We never ever ate them even though they were made out of foods that we loved. Why is that? Why build something so delicious and never fully experience it? Is it the Hansel and Gretel Syndrome? One bite and you’re…toast?

I understand the hysteria. Why not just stand back and enjoy the view from a distance? No need to jump in and take a bite. Too many hazards.

In an earlier blog post I quoted Sir Francis Drake, the famed explorer:

“Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

“Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Where storms will show Your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.”

The psalmist has the right idea: Taste and see that the Lord is good…(Psalm 34:8)

Take a bite and see…