An Alaskan Tradition...Ice Out/ Break up!
We all look forward to seeing the ice and snow leave after a long winter. This is celebrated no where in Alaska that I know of better than the small town of Nenana Alaska.
A large tripod is erected each winter on the frozen Nenana river by the community.
Hundreds of thousands of tickets are bought at $2.50 a pop betting on when the tripod will topple and the ice flows move down river!
People wait and watch...holding on to their ticket of the day and time down to the second.
The winner takes home about $300,000 if they are the only one to pick that date time that the flows start moving and the giant wooden poles of the tripod heads down river.
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Winter break up got me thinking as I walked around the church parking lot with my boots on about how God works on our hearts.
For safety reasons we throw gravel on the parking lot in winter. The gravel gives us a grip on the ice as we walk across making our way in and out of God's house. What I noticed this year which was extreme when it came to ice, is the gravel would get covered over by snow and soon it was useless for gripping. It was embedded in the ice.
It made me think about sin. Sin embeds itself into our life. Now ice does not feel but we do and when sin embeds in our heart there it causes agitation and pain. Sin not dealt with and denied in our life affects us and those we have in our life. Wounds, old and new and hurts come out of us in many ways. Anger. Hatred. Depression. Withdrawal. Attitudes of all kinds come from wounds and hurts not dealt with in openness. Not forgiving others of their wrongs, real or imagined, leads to bitterness in our life and more brokenness.
How does God work on the ice that covers...
...our heart! For we need our heart broken free from the ice that covers it.
If you have seen the Disney movie Frozen the queen withdraws from the world to the safety of her castle. When forced out and into the world, we see for her that world is turned upside down. She then retreats into the mountains to be alone. She is stuck in her own world of loneliness, fear and sadness.
This is not the way God wants us to live. We are formed I believe more and more to live in community as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live in unity and community.
Not only does God provide for our sins to be taken care of but He wants to restore us. God wants to melt the ice that surrounds our heart to set us free.
The Celebration of Easter is approaching!
Spring time is on the way!
Ice out/ break up is approaching!
This time of year is God's reminder to us of His plan to thaw out our hearts through the love of Jesus Christ His one and only son.
We use gravel for the parking lot to give us grip as we walk. Yet on the sidewalks, salt is used.
When I walk around and see where salt hit the ice as we try to keep the walkways clear I can see how the salt melts down through.
As the salt punches holes through the ice making it look all honeycombed on the top it also worked from inside the ice.
From the inside of the ice the salt melts and as the ice turns to water it begins to remove the ice from the inside as well as working from on top.
God works in a similar way.
The Holy Spirit works from inside our hearts. The word of God coming from the outside makes its way inside of us and melts us.
The love of Jesus who died on the cross for our sin breaks through bringing healing as he has taken away our sins.
The result...
Growth.
New life.
The ice that covers us and keeps us from a healthy relationship with God our heavenly father and with each other now flows free like Jesus' love flowed free to us.
Blessings as you continue your Lenten journey!
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