It is easy to look out your window after a warm evening under the covers to see a nice white blanket of snow. You might even smile a little because it gives you an opportunity to wear those oh-so-cute gloves you bought recently. But this all happened while you were asleep, in your home with your heater cranked up. The biggest inconvenience you might have to is wiping the snow off of your windshield and starting your car, only to quickly retreat inside to escape the sharp uncomfortable negative ten degree wind chill.
How often do we allow for our minds to turn to the one who saw this coming in the night sky who was late to get into the shelter, whose only recourse now is to find the driest piece of ground to lay his or her head?
I remember in the later part of a summer a homeless man at a community dinner told me a story about the previous winter. One evening he said it was so cold he desperately searched for unlocked cars to find a place to escape the windchill. He says he remembers a distinct moment when he accepted that this could be his last night.
I may need to scrap the snow off of my car in the morning, but at least I went to bed not worrying if it would be my last.
