Snap Frozen in Time
Jesus Parables always took a physical event, and then wove from that concept, a spiritual event, so let us develop concepts around that, from this very concept, and to let this concept blossom, to help us to understand a more Heavenly concept, and inspiration has once more given us this to consider, and the setting is ‘The Klondike,’ about 1890-1900. The Klondike is a world of rapidly changing extremes, and can flip from one extreme to another in mere minutes, like in Spring, the thermometer can go from minus-40F below, all the way up to 35F above, in just a few short hours, and now that is a rapid change, but can we go from frozen in sin, to warmed by the love of God, transformed from dead to alive, thawed out by the warmth of the Love of God, in just a few rapid hours, God can do it, do you want God to warm your cold heart, to thaw you out, to make you alive and lively, warmed and safe, enclosed and embraced?
Up in the Klondike, the river breaks up in May, with a hiss and a roar, huge slabs of ice buffet and crunch each other, get tipped and lifted, slowly moving down stream, open water at long last, but not for long, cause by August, the first frosts arrive, and winters frosty fingers start to creep cross the land, and creeps into everything, and promising even worse to come. Snow is in early September, and thus one is into the seven months of winter confinement, and near total darkness. By mid-November the sun completely disappears for two whole months, and a tentative re-appearance in mid-January. What happens when you get on the wrong side of winter, well let us tell a couple of true stories then, but let us set the scene. In the very cold weather, a thick fog settles over the Yukon valley. It appears as soon as the thermometer sank below forty, and looking out the windows one can pretty well judge the temperature by its density. If the building a short block away was still visible, it was forty below, if building half a block away were somewhat invisible, then it was fifty below, if the house right across the street was invisible, then it is fully sixty below zero, or even at its worst, sinking to seventy-two below on the Fahrenheit scale (Minus -58C).
At temperatures below sixty, any over-exertion or heavy breathing, could well freeze the lungs. Poor old Smith Constance was fetching back his provisions one Christmas Eve, and met his death in this manner, the mild weather was at thirty below, but towards night when Constance started to head for home, the thermometer began to drop. He was eighty years old, and he probably became dazed with cold and fatigue, as he finally neared his cabin in the now foggy forest. At any rate they found him lying just fifty yards from his cabin door, his tracks in the snow tracing an aimless path around a little fir tree, unable to clearly see his door, and to make out the safety of his cabin door through the fog, unable to distinguish his cabin in the white-out, he tried to keep warm by slowly walking, and to go around and round the little tree, to save himself from going off the trail, and getting absolutely and totally lost. The Mounties would often come across a strange parka-clad figure, standing stiffly in the snow, unmoving. This was the corpse of yet another man, who had paused to knock his numbed feet together, and to wipe the ice from his stiffening eyeballs, only to find, that he could not move on anymore, and there he would remain, a frozen and a grisly statue. One old timer was located, frozen in time, yet another frozen and grisly statue, hand reaching towards the door catch, just mere inches away, but he never ever made it through the door, to the warmth and safety within, perishing right upon the very doorstep, oh so very close, yet completely missing the safety of his indoors.
Some humorously say that many will miss Heaven by mere inches, the very distance between the Head to the Heart, oh so very close, but oh so very far away, wishes and desires, but actions below parr. The ‘Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids’ of Matthew chapter 25, they were oh so very close to the safety of Heaven, but their failings had frozen them out, right there at the very door, even standing right upon the very Door Step, hands reaching out to the door just mere inches away, and in the end, perishing just mere inches from Salvation, perishing right at the very door. Revelation 22:11 “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Snap frozen in time, snap frozen on the trail, failing to achieve a safe arrival, lost far from home, yet others fall oh so tantalizingly very close, but still so very far away from the warmth and safety within, but on the wrong side of the door, still coming up short, and are right even at the very door, but never make it through into the love and warmth of Eternity and Heaven beyond. ‘Snap Frozen in Time,’ short of the final goal, whether it be far away, or short, or even right outside the door, the wrong side of the door is never going to be right, it always leaves us to falling short, perishing, eternally lost, dead in their trespasses and sins, just Frozen Out from the grace and purity and warmth of Heaven, will you also fall short of the Glory of God, lost in the bleak wilderness of the cares of this life of sin, or are you all cosey and warm and safe, in my Heavenly Father’s Love, heading briskly to ‘My Father’s House.’
