The Blizzard of ’25 left a variety of wondrous scenes and sculptures, most of which I have not closely inspected. The joys of knee deep drifts dissipate fairly quickly in minus five wind chills. One of the most intriguing, though, has remained available for comfortable viewing from inside our enclosed and heated porch.

We watched throughout the day on the first Sunday of the new year as the snow piled up around the front of our vehicles. In particular, the sculpting at the front of our Ford Fusion became increasingly intriguing. By night, the drift curved up to the height of the headlight. The buffer zone maintained a shape more of less mirroring the front of the car. With temperatures holding well below freezing, the drifts held their shape for several days.

At different times when I was clearing the driveway and shoveling paths through the snow, I thought about scooping away that drift. But, whether due to intentional thought or mere laziness, I didn’t.

A very slight and short-lived warming trend last week and the gradual transfer of retained warmth from the earth slowly shrank the drifts. At the upper tip of the drift by the headlight, something else happened. The peak turned into a sheath of transparent ice. With the gradual flattening formed by gravity and wind, it transformed into a glass-like sheet.

Also, a mysterious bulb of snow formed a circle inside the flat ice. At one point, the ice melted away from it, leaving a hollow halo around the snow bulb. This morning, with some additional slight melting during the night, even though it was ten degrees below freezing, one edge of the circle had vanished. Currently, the white intrusion looks like the head of a tiny ice alligator.

There are many wonders in the world, natural formations that vary from massive to minute. The breaking edges of glaciers hundreds of feet thick thundering into the ocean. Tiny icicles dripping from the edge of cedar branches. Sculpted sandstone bluffs rising high above the forest floors. Patches of lichen and algae etched into windswept cliffs. The list, I think, approaches infinity. This world, even with its awful storms, calamities, and catastrophes, inspires awe.

I find no less inspiring the work of God’s hand upon the spirits and souls of those who have yielded to his touch, whose hearts and lives have been and are being transformed. Taken from darkness and shaped into light, bearing the handiwork of the Creator of the Universe. People whose tears are shaped into diamonds by the miraculous power of love and light which is able to take every onslaught of life and use it for their good.