Chinook Winds

I keep learning and experiencing new things in Alaska. One of the things I have learned that I never heard of before is the weather phenomenon called a "Chinook wind". It is my understanding that these winds are also called "pineapple express" winds for it is a weather pattern of warm air and wind that come up from Hawaii and hits the coast of Alaska. These winds can come through for a few hours or a few days. The winds have caused temperature swings from -52 to +48 degrees and back again in a very short period of time. 

I've experienced a couple of these Chinook winds this winter. We have had better than 5' of snow but then the Chinook winds came in and so it does not appear that we have had that much snow. These very warm winds carry a lot of moisture with them so we get rain on top of the snow. It often times will then freeze at night making driving in the morning a bit of a bumper car ride. I watched snow plow mountains shrink significantly in size. The snow clad yard in front of the parsonage shrivel from a knee height, blank of snow, to ankle deep ice covered snow. Anchorage does not use salt on the roads but spreads a lot of gravel for traction. The result of not using salt on the roads is over time snow and ice build up that the plows and road graders can not seem to knock down. The Chinook winds came in and I got to see blacktop again on a lot of the roads.  

I like winter. I love the snow. Yet I have to say that the Chinook winds were a nice cold weather break. I guess the Chinook winds mentally thawed out me out. It was a welcome break in this cold winter wonderland.

It is nice to have a change of weather like that. It made me feel better and reminds me that winter does not last forever.  

Just a few days ago we got one of "those calls". You know the phone calls I am talking about, right? The ringing wakes you up in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning and your gut tells you: "Something is wrong".

News from the family, Michelle's 87 year old grandmother was deteriorating rapidly and it was not going to be long. The sons of Grandma Rita were right. She did past into life eternal a short time later. Grandma Rita had 7 boys no girls. She buried 3 of her boys, one a birth and two from cancer. She buried her husband some years ago. That was painful but all and all she was blessed with a good life. She did not have to work and yet she and George (Grandpa) had the means to travel all over the world. One of the things I will always remember about grandma was - she loved to go out for dinner and was a food critic. Not only could she tell you what she had last week (or the week before) and what was good or bad about the meal but she was able to tell you what everyone else had at her table. 

Grandma Rita was not an imposing figure. She was short, had a raspy voice, and a little round shouldered in her older age. Yet she commanded respect and attention. She had this glare where she would raise her one eye brow and slightly close the other. If she wanted your attention she had a voice that did not seem to match that little frame of hers. I guess she learned how to use what she had to keep those boys of hers in line. Over 21 years of marriage to Michelle I spent time with the "uncles" and they are a handful, crazy, fun, and wild but they listened to their mom- even as adults! It was odd seeing them all together for a family photo for as short as she was, her boys were all blessed with long legs that made them tower over her.

We saw her just a few months back before we left for our new home in Alaska. Michelle, the kids and I went out to eat with her- of course! She was a gracious host and she enjoyed her meal and especially her pie she ordered for desert. Sorry but I cannot recall what kind of pie it was, I have my limitations! She will be missed that is for sure. 

With the loss of a loved one it feels a little like winter. Death makes us cold and shiver. Death seems quiet and dark. Death can make us withdraw, to retreat, to seek shelter from the cold wind of reality. Reality like: one less at the table, and we are getting older and will have to face death too. The Apostle Paul used words from the Old Testament to help us deal with the cold reality of death. “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” It is a chilling verse for me to read in some ways for I see the word STING and death does sting...it hurts...like a cold winter wind that slaps you in the face! 

That feeling is only temporary! Paul was right that as we look to Jesus we feel the warmth of a Chinook wind that thaws us out. A wind of blessing that refreshes us in the midst of a cold season in life. Death does not have the final word. There is victory through Jesus. I know grandma Rita had lived a good long life. She saw much - some good and lived through some not so good things. I know she was strong in her faith and she loved the Lord. I know she was loved by Jesus and she is with him. That is the Chinook wind in all of this mix of feelings and emotions that is going on inside of the family as we we say: "until a little later" to Grandma Rita. 

I do not know how people who are facing their own death or working through the grief of a loved one who has died can do it without Jesus. It just seems like life would be a long winter with no reprieve. No Chinook wind that comes to knock the frost off and melt the snow from the road of life.  Call belief in Jesus a crutch. Call faith in our Lord and savior  a weak man's refusal to deal with reality. I do not care what those who have no faith in Jesus call it but I am thankful for the Chinook winds Jesus provides in the Bible. 

Death has no sting, no victory because of Jesus!

Thank you Grandma for the memories!

Thank you Jesus for the warmth of your love- towards her and towards us! 

Until next time...Peace of Christ be with you! 

Pastor Andy

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