Impressions

Read I Peter 3:8-10

Growing up in Minnesota is what every little boy should experience. People often think of Minnesota as cold tundra when in all actuality, it simply has four distinct seasons. My favorite season was winter. I loved the snow and the ice. This got me thinking about something I had never thought about before. Snow. Beautiful white blankets of snow.
As I began to think about snow, I realized that blankets of snow have the fascinating ability of keeping entirely accurate records of everything that touches them. An 80-pound dog or an 8-ounce bird both leave their unique marks on the snow’s fragile surface. I remember the first time I took my son out into the snow. My wife had him all wrapped up in his snowsuit (he could barely move), but I remember the marks that he made in the snow. No one is exempt from making a mark when there is new fallen snow.
People are much like freshly fallen snow. As we interact with each person, we leave impressions in each other’s souls. As we walk together, we leave footprints in each other’s paths. As family or friends, we leave traces of ourselves in each other’s minds and hearts. What traces do we leave in others’ minds? Do we leave traces that encourage self-doubt, or traces that nurture God-confidence? What prints do we leave in others’ paths? Prints that cause stumbling or prints that guide truthfully? What impressions do we leave in others’ souls? Are they impressions that widen wounds or impressions that heal?
When God finds our fingerprints in each others’ lives, does He smile or cry? The snow’s record is accurate, but temporary. Snow doesn’t last long (especially in Missouri); several inches will slowly surrender to rising temperatures. There the analogy between the snow and the person ends because—for better or for worse—our marks in other's lives are not so easily erased. Traces, prints, impressions…may our touch in others’ lives reflect well on our precious Jesus.

“The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.”
Thomas Carlyle