dear diary – that beautiful name

I woke up this morning and wondered why the light coming through my window was so bright.  It was 7:00am.  I looked out at a world that was cascading with white – God had painted the trees last night.  Fluffy, brilliant, clean and sparkling.  The sky was full of clouds, but still, the sparkling white of the snow canceled out the gloom.

It becomes one of those mornings that everyone wakes up later, and stays in pjs until 11:00am.  It is one of those mornings where sister bakes ginger coffee cake, and the whole kitchen smells of its pungent spice.  It’s one of those mornings where you step outside and the cold bites your nose, but the beauty of all of it beckons you and you can’t help but succumb to its invitation.  Little brother has found an old sign in the shed and he is using it to cross-country ski.  He is barely moving, but like everything else in this magical morning, he doesn’t seem to care.  You are just glad to be out in it, experiencing this the silver sapphires that are sparkling all around you.

Hours later, there is chicken, sweet potatoes and cookies in the oven baking, while everyone sits around the kitchen table reading mysteries and eating eggs and peppers.  In between the 13.5 minutes it takes to bake the cookies, I waltz out to our black, out-of-tune piano and play.  The keys plunk, and sound too hollow for my liking.  This time, I actually stop to read the words as I play –

I know of a name,
A beautiful name,
That angels brought down to earth;
They whispered it low
One night long ago,
To a maiden of lowly birth.

Back to the kitchen to pluck out the cookies before they get too golden-brown.  My cookies must always be a little soft in the center, with some kind of goodness threatening to ooze out at any moment.  They are perfect this time.  I touch their tender, bubbling tops and shuffle them out onto a cooling rack.  I scoop 9 little cookie blobs and leave it up to the oven to babysit them as I scurry off to the piano once more.

I know of a name,
A beautiful name,
That unto a Babe was given;
The stars glittered bright
Throughout that glad night,
And angels praised God in heaven.

Oh, glorious hope.  The hope that came through a little baby.   That little, beautiful baby, with all the power in the world to one day free us from the sin that held us captive.  Oh, glorious name.  Oh, beautiful name.  I scoop cookie dough, and steal a glance outside – the silver sapphires are beginning to fall now – the warming of the day has touched them, and they cannot stay forever.  And so they turn into drips of silver and land on houses and people and benches and cars.  They’ll come again though.  This winter promises that.

That beautiful name,
That beautiful name,
From sin has power to free us.
That beautiful name,
That wonderful name,
That matchless name is Jesus.