Let it Snow?!

What comes to your mind when you wake up and see that it is snowing outside? Be honest. If you are like me the first thing that comes to mind is snow shoveling or driving in bad road conditions, delays and cold. However if you asked Joseph or Daniel my twin six year old sons they would answer all excited by the possibilities of snowmen, sledding, snowball fights and hot chocolate. It’s amazing how people seeing the same thing can have such dramatically different responses.

I was reminded of this last week when I was stranded by snow at the Philadelphia airport. I had traveled with our legal services director, John Talley, for three days of training with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for our low income taxpayer clinic. Spending three days with IRS agents is bad enough without having to spend an additional day stranded in an airport. The lines were long and people’s tempers were short. Anger and swearing were common. But no amount of anger could change the reality of being snowed in. John and I remained calm and spent a great deal of time with a frustrated airline employee. When we finished with our alternate arrangements John grabbed the woman’s hand, smiled and said, "thank you". That simple act of kindness in the midst of the storm brought a tear to her eye. We cannot control the bad things that happen in this world, but we also do not need to be controlled by them.

"No man or woman can be strong, gentle, pure, and good, without the world being better for it and without someone being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness." Phillips Brooks. What a simple truth that is so often lost in the midst of life’s storms. We know this has been a stormy year for you. While we are grateful for the opportunity to have helped you, we know that help is often small. We try to follow Phillips Brooks advice but sometimes we fail. "The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden."

So who is Phillips Brooks? I was reminded of him as I sat stranded in Philadelphia with a lot of time on my hands. He was the pastor of a wonderful old church in downtown Philadelphia during the Civil War. Following the great distress of that war he traveled to Israel and visited Bethlehem. A couple of years later he wanted to compose a song for the children of his church to sing at Christmas that could give these young people hope in a country still healing from tragedy. "In this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still the dear Christ enters in." He wrote. He handed the words to his organist and asked him to come up with an easy tune for the children and the day before the scheduled event the tune came to the man and both the words and the music to a Christmas classic were born:

O Little Town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by; yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light - the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
For Christ is born of Mary - and gathered all above, while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wond’ring love. O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth, and praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv’n! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav’n. No ear may hear His coming, but, in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still the dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem descend to us, we pray; cast out our sin and enter in - be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle and snow and long ‘to do’s’, we pray that you can experience the stillness of Bethlehem. "How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!" We pray that when people and events fail you that you can cling to the most wondrous gift of all.

Phillips Brooks died suddenly when he was only 58 years old. A five year old child at the church was heard asking what had happened to her friend. Her mother told her that he had gone to heaven. The little girl just smiled and said, "The angels must be so happy!" So much of life really is a matter of perspective!

Phillips Brooks also said: "Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there." At this time of year we find it helpful to remember that we are not alone in our struggles and ask individuals to consider sharing with others in need. We share Phillips Brooks prayer for you as you hear the songs of Christmas may "praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth."

Posted by Bruce D. Strom, Executive Director Administer Justice, www.administerjustice.org