Black Snow

It was the early 1990’s, I was living at home with my parents after just graduating from college.   With no job, I was willing to do most any thing for work.  Replying to a newspaper ad with a phone call, (this was before the advent of the internet), I was told to show up at the power plant on Cousin’s Island, Maine and the company would put me to work.  I didn’t know much about the job other than it was “shutdown” work.  That meant the plant was shut down and the work was “maintenance” work.  I’d done dirty jobs before, so I wasn’t concerned with this one. 

The morning of the first day, the supervisors explained the work and safety protocols.  There were large hoppers in which there were cables (electrodes) that were to be replaced.  The crew I was assigned to was part of two crews that would remove the old electrodes and replace them with new ones. 

We put on our safety gear, (hard hats, safety goggles, Tyvek suits, gloves and a respirator), signed the log and stepped into the hopper through a manhole.  One person stayed at the bottom of the hopper while the others climbed up inside with their drop lights to disconnect the electrodes from their holders.  It was dark inside the hopper, very dark.  There was some light coming in through the manhole and a little from the drop lights above, but it was still dark.  For the first few days my job was the same.  I was the one at the bottom of the hopper who guided the old electrodes out of the manhole and the new ones in. 

One day during break, we were discussing what each crew was doing in each area.  To my surprise, there was a second crew in the hopper working about 20 feet above our crew!  How did I not notice that?  Well, when the plant was running, the electrodes were charged with electricity to collect soot particles from the smoke from oil being burned to produce electricity.  The soot would drop down into the bottom of the hopper where a screw conveyor would feed it back into the plant to be used for fuel.  Now that the plant was shut down, the soot had stuck to the electrodes and the inside of the hopper.  When the crews removed the electrodes, the soot was shaken off and precipitated down the length of the hopper.  As this “black snow” fell from the top of the hopper, it coated everything.  The sides of the hopper remained coated, so, as I said, it was very dark in there.

After the discussion of what the crews were actually doing, I climbed back inside the hopper and carefully looked up to see that flat black snow filled the hopper.  Above the crew that I was a part of, the upper crew had 300 Watt work lights that they were using to perform their work.  As I peered up, I saw only a faint glimmer of those lights hidden by the black snow.  While the light reaching my eyes was not bright, it was not inhibited by the feeble attempts of the snow to block it.

As Christians, our walk is sometimes like that job; it can be difficult for us to see the light through the darkness.  But, if you look closely it is there. In this modern world there are so many distractions it is difficult to remain focused for even a short amount of time.  That’s why it is important to be deliberate in getting offline. 

Distractions can cause us to be unable to focus on things that are comforting and relaxing.  So, much information is available to us, it is often difficult for us to discern truth from what I’ll call non-truth.  With social media platforms being so widely available, nearly anyone is able to present information as if they were an authority in whatever topic they are talking about.  While there are many wonderfully talented and authoritative speakers out there, there are perhaps more that are not. 

The Bible says that Christians who believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, are the “Light of the World,” Matthew 5:14.  Consider how many people who are “Lights” and how much black snow is present to attempt to snuff them out.  But the Bible also tells us that the Word of God will never be totally snuffed out (see Luke 1:33). 

What does this equate to?  No matter how hard darkness tries, the Light will always pierce it.  The story of Louis Zamperini is an example of this.  Louis was an airman in WWII.  His plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean on May 27, 1943.  Through many extreme circumstances, including months of horrific abuse during imprisonment at a Japanese concentration camp, Louis persevered.  While the effects of his traumatic journey took their toll on him and his family, the Lord had a different plan for him.  In 1949, Zamperini attended a Billy Graham crusade.  That evening he gave his life to the Lord and was completely changed.  He actually returned to Japan to seek out every man who was a guard at the prison camp he was held in.  Those guards treated every prisoner of war so horrifically that some of the men perished at the prison camp.  But Louis was looking them up to offer them forgiveness, just as he experienced forgiveness from Jesus Christ.  Only one guard refused to see him, presumably, because he felt unworthy to speak with Louie.  (Based on information from Wikipedia.com.)

The Light that was in Louis Zamperini penetrated the darkness perpetrated by the guards to the point where some were so deeply humbled and convicted by the act of forgiveness that they actually accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  

When we can calm our mind, heart and soul, we can hear the call of the Lord, and we can emulate the Light that He is to others.