Snow Like Wool on the Windowsill: Psalm 147 for a First Winter in a Draughty Flat

Nobody really prepares you. You can be told about winter, see it on television, even buy the heavy coat before you leave Kingston or Port of Spain. But nothing quite matches the first morning you wake in a rented flat in Toronto or Manchester, see your breath in the bedroom, and find ice on the inside of the window.

The radiator clanks and gives off very little. The heating bill arrives and is more than you budgeted for food. The children come home from school with red hands. And the daylight is gone by half past four.

For many families who have migrated from warmer places, that first winter is not just uncomfortable. It is disorienting. It can make a new home feel hostile, and make the decision to move feel like a mistake.

The God of the snow

Psalm 147 was written in a land that rarely saw snow, but the psalmist knew about it. “He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; He casts out His hail like morsels; who can stand before His cold?” (Psalm 147:16-17, NKJV).

That last question is honest. Who can stand before His cold? Not many of us, on the walk to the bus stop in February. The psalm does not pretend the cold is pleasant. It simply insists that even the cold is under God’s hand. The weather in a strange country is not outside His reach.

And then the very next verse: “He sends out His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow” (Psalm 147:18). The same God who sends the snow also sends the thaw. Winter is real, but it is not permanent.

A psalm about rebuilding

It helps to notice where this psalm starts. “The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (verses 2-3). It was likely sung by people who had returned from exile, rebuilding a city from rubble. They knew what it was to be displaced, and to start again with very little.

The psalm moves back and forth between the vast and the tender. God counts the stars and calls them by name (verse 4). He also feeds the young ravens when they cry (verse 9). The one who commands the weather also notices the family in the cold flat.

Practical faith in a cold house

Trusting God with the winter does not mean sitting shivering and waiting for a miracle. It often looks like wisdom and help from others, received as His provision:

• Asking a neighbour or church member who has lived there longer how they keep the heating bill down.
• Telling the landlord promptly about draughty windows, a broken boiler or damp patches, and following up in writing.
• Finding out from the local council, energy supplier or community groups whether there is any help with heating costs for households like yours.
• Heavy curtains, a draught excluder at the door, layers of clothing and one warm room the family gathers in.
• Getting outside in what daylight there is, and keeping in touch with people so the dark months do not become lonely ones.

For churches with many members from warmer countries, there is a simple ministry here too: a coat drive in October, a practical evening on winter bills, a meal for the family that arrived in August and is about to discover January.

Seasons in a life, too

Winter is also a picture most of us recognise from other parts of life. There are seasons in a household that feel cold and dark: after a job loss, when a marriage is strained, when the home you hoped for seems a long way off. In those seasons, it is easy to believe the thaw will never come.

Psalm 147 does not promise a date. But it tells us who is in charge of the seasons, and that His word melts ice. The family who shivers through their first winter will, a few months later, see the first green on the trees and hear someone on the bus say, “It’s warming up.” Many of them, a few years on, will be the ones handing out coats to the newcomers.

For reflection

• Is your household in a winter of some kind right now? What would it mean to believe that God sends the thaw as surely as the snow?
• Who do you know who is facing their first cold season, in a new country or a new circumstance, and could use some warmth?

Lord, You give snow like wool and You melt it with a word. Keep us warm in the cold places, give us wisdom with the bills, and let us not lose heart in the dark months. Gather the ones who are far from home, heal the brokenhearted, and bring the spring. Amen.

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