Schools are closed today.

There is not two feet of new fallen snow. There were no terrorist threats. The teachers aren’t on strike. The roads were a bit slippery, so they closed the schools. A tad slippery?!? I feel like I am obligated as a person with grey hair and born during the Kennedy administration to offer the following statement:

In my day they never cancelled school because the roads were slippery. I remember walking in snow that was over the rooftops. For two miles. With subzero temperatures. Wearing nothing but sweatpants, a windbreaker and my Keds. And I loved every minute of it!”

Of course, I never did the above things.

Our memories are a funny thing. Sometimes people like me get our memories a little skewed and “good old days” weren’t as good as we remember. Others are stuck in the “bad old days” that have happened in their life and everything has been colored by those events. I have found that many people tend to forget the things we should remember and we remember the things we should forget.

One of the hardest reminders in the Bible is hidden in the Love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13) when Paul writes that love… “keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:8). I think he was saying to have a heart filled with love we can’t hold onto the past (either real or imagined). We need to release those burdens to the one who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:38).

Remembering those things we should forget and keeping record of wrongs produces a burden that imprisons us, but Jesus’ love can set us free. His love empowers us to overcome those memories and experience a new day. His love produces a joy similar to learning that there is a “snow” day at school because of slippery roads!

I hope you can experience that joy! And I hope the kids and teachers enjoy their day off today too. Play. Dance. Sing. And in true grey haired, born-in-the-Kennedy-Administration form remember this: STAY OFF MY LAWN!!