When you pray for weather of any kind, it’s always important to understand you aren’t the only one praying for what might come from the sky. 

I might need rain for my crops, but my neighbor may need a sunny week to build the roof on his house. We all have needs and wants, but praise God, He knows better for all of us than we do in our small view of the world. 

My son has been praying for snow for well over a month now, and in a normal year I’d be backing him right up, praying for the typical weather of the season to go out and enjoy with him. This year, however, we’re building a house. 

As it would happen, our house is set to be delivered just before the date this column will be printed, and the weather has been our concern for the past two months of waiting and preparing. 

We’ve enjoyed the blessing of an extremely mild winter compared to what we normally have by this time, but I know better than to take it for granted. 

I have been praying every day for the weather to support our building timeframe. Snow itself wouldn’t necessarily mess up our building plans, but the timing certainly matters. 

Just as we’ve made it into this home stretch before the modular sections arrive to be set, winter has awoken and graced us with its thrills and challenges alike. 

I can’t say I’m a model for faithfulness on things like this. I am admittedly still very tuned into the Weather Channel and our contractors as we head to the climax of our project, but I can honestly say as the snow fell during this last big storm that I was at peace. I know God has been holding back the winter weather to help us get many things done, and even now it appears as though the window for the important work being done will fall between weather events on the upcoming forecast. 

As I went to bed before this snowfall, I looked out at the yard, knowing it would be well covered when I awoke the next day—and my sons would get the answers to their prayers as well. 

Sure enough, when the sun rose, we had nearly 11 inches on the ground and neither of my boys could wait long enough to get their snow clothes on before scrambling out the door. 

I think God is like any other good parent in that He wants to spoil his children when he can. While I can’t take credit for making the snow, I followed His lead and assisted my oldest with capitalizing on the day. We shoveled for a whole five minutes until he was bored of that shovel he had so coveted before then. 

Then his mother tagged in and broke out the sleds, only to discover our youngest most enjoyed lying back and staring at the sky while being towed around the flat yard. 

Next I was recruited to give instruction on the engineering of a proper snow fort in between shoveling the driveway. Unfortunately I had procrastinated on fixing our snowblower so I was stuck with the shovel; however, God blessed us again when our neighbor—whom we had not officially met before—came by and offered to plow us out with his side-by-side. 

Rorick, my son, was happy as this meant a larger snow pile for his fort. While he continued to burrow, my youngest watched as my wife struggled to roll large snowballs in preparation for a snowman in the yard. I came when beckoned to hoist the enormous wet balls of snow upon each other, yielding a nearly seven-foot-tall snowman. 

My eldest then called me away to make snowballs to fortify his new underground encampment.

Before teeth began to chatter, we headed inside for hot chocolate and homemade turkey noodle soup. Naps were met with somewhat less argument than normal, and the Hill house enjoyed a truly good and happy day.

The way out here, we pray for the weather we need, but we live with the weather we get. The snow has nearly all melted since then and life goes on, as does the constant turnover of work in and around the farm. Perhaps when the bulk of our major tasks are settled, we can have another day to spend enjoying whatever new weather God sends us.