Snow Crystals

 I worked at a ski lodge that had a “cut-off” trail from the slopes straight to the front door of the lodge.  On nights when the moonlight would bounce off the snow creating more light than a lantern, a few of us would hike that trail backwards up to the ski run and secretly ski the rest of the run. Then hike back home along the railroad track. The silence I experienced on those covert missions was unprecedented. Rarely do we have a chance to experience such deep and utter quiet.

According to Accuweather, when snow accumulates on the ground, it acts as a sound absorber. Sound waves are trapped in tiny pockets within the snow crystals and the waves can't bounce and make their way into our ears as sound.

Of course we were being quiet because we didn’t want to get caught, but more so because of the exquisite sound of solitude. Despite our bodies being in motion, we were wrapped in stillness, no crunch of snow, like our very exhalations were being silenced and all we were left with was the pounding of our heart from within.

I think that is what God means when He said in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” He isn’t calling us to inactivity, to sit idly by, but instead to allow chaos of the world to be absorbed by his love leaving only the pure sound of His voice.