2015-12 Winter Quarter

t’s a gift to be simple.” As a youngster I’d

often heard this proverb emphasized during

Christmastime.

I must add that there was also a time I just didn’t get the “gift”

part of the phrase. I often wondered,

What can one get out

of being simple? Doesn’t “simple” mean to be stripped bare of

belongings?

I was significantly disturbed when I used to hear

this quote, and ended up misinterpreting it as a consequence.

As far as I was concerned, simple living was for the homeless

and destitute; I much preferred comfort and entertainment

during the holidays and every time of year.

What I didn’t realize is that these things can lead to myopic

insights and spiritual blindness; these, of course, are exactly

what I adopted because of my secular viewpoint which, I might

add, could easily have shaped the rest of my childhood and

youth.

It was lucky for me that God decided to do something about

that in December 2008, the year He sent both a Herculean

snowstorm and a valuable message my way.

Both came unexpectedly. Ten days before Christmas, a fierce

blizzard swept by our Northern Oregon neighborhood and

dumped about six inches of snow on our doorstep. According to

the news, this amount was a record-breaker!

Over the course of that week, the front lawn became a

playground for us kids, who had no idea of the shortcomings

which were to follow. Wait until we told all our grandparents

what they were missing out on!

And then… the problems began. The weekend before Christmas,

“