When the snow and ice came this past Sunday, it was kind of fun… at first.

May your new year be filled with the ever-recreating newness of grace and forgiveness.

So what if I told you that there is something more powerful than willpower or pain in your tool bag for change? And that it is a whole lot more fun.

I spotted vultures, doves, egrets, and herons. I saw Mallards, Gadwalls, Wigeons, Lesser Scaups, Buffleheads, Pied-billed Grebes, Goldeneyes, and Cormorants. All these birds I had seen before, just never took the time or binoculars to really identify them. The unknown became known through taking time to identify.

When the future looks great, we wait for it with eager expectation. So says St. Paul when writing of creation and the Second coming of Jesus.

True confession: I’m usually driving 64 mph when I scoot through this section of Sedgwick County. I hadn’t noticed all the trash.