Growing up in the north, we live for snow days. There was simply nothing to compare with sitting on the couch groggily watching the morning news starting at 5:30 am inspecting the cancellation scroll at the bottom of the screen, hoping beyond hope that your school district would appear. My husband and I even recall our unnecessary hatred of the Norwin School District that came alphabetically after North Hills School District; if Norwin came on before the rush of bliss caused by our own cancellation, we knew we had to trudge to school.
Of course cancellations are much more rare in the north, but I vividly remember the blizzard of 1993. I was in second grade, and we missed an entire week of school. Even my dad, who would give up sleep to do his work if he could, was home all week with us. I remember shoveling and building snowmen with my dad. I remember him reaching out my bedroom window and pulling a 2-foot-long icicle off the eave of the roof, and handing it to me like a popsicle (much to my mother's dissatisfaction). I can remember a time in 8th grade when the snow knocked out our power, and we had s'mores in our fireplace for lunch, and we played endless card-games by candlelight. As a child, snow days were the height of excitement; as an adult, I welcome the rest and lack of expectation for that day. Northerners we may be, but my husband and I enjoyed the heck out of our snowed-in weekend, cooking home-cooked meals, binge-watching Netflix, and playing with our dear kitten, George Hairyson. Sometimes life just needs an interruption, a snow-day, a rest.
I can never remember church being canceled as a child, but then again, I likely wouldn't have known. My family lived a few miles away from the church, and would probably have elected not to attend long before the call was made. In college, I worked at a church in the "snow belt" 45 minutes south of Erie, PA. A foot of snow might come, but most people walked to church; I can't imagine that worship was ever canceled due to snow. In the past few years, churches I've worked at have canceled more often than I remember. At first, I found this startling: it seems to me that even if one person shows up to worship God, they ought to have the opportunity to do so. Since then, I have learned that people will go to great lengths, putting themselves at great risk to come to worship, and it would break my heart to hear that those folks were injured or worse in their attempt to make it to the church. And after all, people can worship in their homes, in their hearts, in their cars, anywhere, really.
Cancellation is Biblical
Of course, I don't believe there are any major snow storms in the Bible, but there are certainly a lot of cancellations. It seems, actually, that God gets our attention in this play and dance of cancellations and alterations to our schedules.
In Genesis, we meet Abram and Sarai. God approaches them in Genesis 12, and says:
Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all the peoples of the earth
will be blessed through you.
God changes their names to Abraham and Sarah and tells them that their descendants will be as numerous as the stars.
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And then...Sarah becomes barren. She can't have children; she can't get pregnant. Cancellation.
*******
Scroll forward to Exodus. The Israelites are enslaved in Egypt, and God comes to Moses to enact his deliverance. He says,
Therefore, say to the Israelites, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.
And so, God performs astounding acts through the plagues of Egypt. And the Israelites flee and are freed...
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...freed to wander about the desert for 40 years. Moses himself dies before getting to enter the Promised Land spoken of by God. Cancellation.
****
Fast forward: King David decides that he would like to be the one to build the Temple for God in Jerusalem. It was, he felt, the only right and proper thing to do, to give God a real home in the capital city. The plans seemed sure; the prophets thought that God would be pleased.
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But God's response was not exactly what David had hoped for:
Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'
In other words, No. Absolutely not. No temple for you. Cancellation.
****
God called the prophet Jonah to go to the people of Ninevah, who were notoriously ungodly. Jonah didn't like this task very much...
But Jonah ran away from the Lord, and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Of course we know that God interfered with Jonah's brilliant plans in the form of a storm, a fish, an eating, and later a vomiting onto the shores of Ninevah.
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Jonah never made it to Tarshish. He wasn't able to escape the call of God. Cancellation.
****
There was a young woman named Mary. She had dreams of happiness in her arranged marriage to Joseph, dreams of a nice household, dreams of children and prosperity, dreams of faithfulness and love between her and her husband. She wanted a normal, successful life.
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But then the Angel Gabriel appeared to tell her she was pregnant with the Son of God. Pregnant before marriage. Pregnant with a religious and political conqueror. Cancellation.
****
Jesus has been preaching and teaching and healing. There is a crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered to hear him, and it is nearing dinnertime. The disciples are ready to call it a day and retire to someone's home for a private meal together with Jesus. They tell him to turn the people away.
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But Jesus cancels his evening plans to dine with the crowds. Jesus takes 5 loaves and 2 fishes and makes a feast for thousands. Cancellation.
****
Jesus leads Peter, James, and John up onto a mountaintop. There he is tranfigured; Moses and Elijah appear. The disciples are utterly dumbfounded, astounded, taken aback. Stumbling over his words, Peter offers politely to build a shelter for each of them so that they might stay on that mountaintop forever.
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But Moses and Elijah disappear, and Jesus beckons the disciples back down the mountain. Jesus invites no tarrying and asks for no shelter to be built. Peter, James, and John are left bewildered. Cancellation.
Cancellations...Transformations
There are dozens more cancellations made by God throughout Scripture. When we look at these side-by-side, we know that God's cancellations are rarely final. We see that God's cancellations prepare the people for something greater: the miracle birth of Isaac, the building of Temple by Solomon, the birth of Jesus Christ, the glorious feast for thousands. God cancels human plans so that God might reveal some greater purpose or different plan. Often, we read these stories knowing the ending; we rarely stop to think about the disbelief of Sarah, the fear of Mary, the disappointment of David, or the confusion of Peter. Without knowing God's plan, these cancellations must have felt disruptive, terrifying, and even bewildering. Why on earth would God cancel what is logical? Why on earth would God change what seems to be working so well?
Of course, God still does this today. A year ago, I received an email from a stranger named Amanda Masters asking me to interview for a youth director position at a church in South Carolina. I was happily employed at a church in Pittsburgh, recently engaged, enjoying the surrounding attention of friends and family; I politely responded with, "No thank you, I am only interested in ordained positions at this time."
Almost immediately, I received a response from Amanda: "What if we could ordain you?"
From there, God canceled my plans of remaining in the church I loved; God canceled the plans Alex and I were making of living in the trendy Lawrenceville area of Pittsburgh; God canceled the comfort and joy we experienced living in a city we loved surrounded by friends and family. God canceled because God had a plan for us to come here. For personal and professional reasons, I have never been more sure that God canceled because God knew better what we needed and where we were called. A little over 5 months into the call, I am incredibly grateful for God's cancellations.
But of course, these cancellations don't always come in the form of career-changing, life-altering, 500-miles-away, changes. Sometimes, a simple snow day can be an act of God. As we scrubbed our apartment and watched TV, it was a great blessing to spend quiet, restful time with my hubby. I was grateful to God for the chance to simply be present with those I love, including a long phone conversation with my Mimi {grandma}.
What have this weekend's cancellations done for you?
What opportunities has God afforded for you as you huddled up for the weekend wherever you were snowed in?
What did you experience that you might have missed if it weren't for the disruptive weather?
God really is canceling our plans left and right; God interferes with our lives so that we might see glimpses of his glory in our midst. I pray that you too experienced and continue to experience that glory through cancellation and interruption.
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