Snowy Silence

Snowy days were made for warm beverages, good books, and fuzzy blankets.  The type of snowy days we've been having the last couple days are the best kind ever.  No actual snow to shovel as it's not really laying on walks and roads.  Just enough to make everything white and pretty, and the big, white flakes floating fairly endlessly from the sky.

Snowy days are also great for thinking, for introspection... which I happen to be the master of lately.  So I've been thinking about relationships and things of that nature lately, a lot of which will end up in one form or another in my "novel", so I won't go into that all here.  But I've also been thinking a lot about my relationship with God.  I think I'm learning that the more I think I know, the less I know.  And I'm thinking I'm more than okay with that.

I'm reading the book "Silence" by Endo.  It's a historical novel about the persecution of missionaries in Japan and the struggle with God's silence in the face of torture.  It was referred to me by a friend who knows me well, someone who understands my struggles with God, church, and religious structures in general.  Someone who lives through the struggles as well.

So... I've been watching the silent snow fall and thinking about God.  And of the beauty of silence... and the pain of the silence.