I used to love snow days.  Do you remember snow days?  This is how I would remember them.  I would go to bed the night before.  My mom or dad would tell me that the weatherman predicted 18 inches of snow and that there was a good possibility that school was going to be canceled.  That was usually enough to get my two sisters and I excited. Then we would pray to God that this would not be some cruel practical joke, and that an act of God would truly be most merciful for our young lives.  We didn’t care that it meant one of our parents would have to take the day out of work to be home with us.  We didn’t understand the financial situation that a snow day or two could spell financial ruin for the Sencabaugh family.  We only cared that it was one less day of listening to teachers.  Of course, we were so caught up on instant gratification that we didn’t realize that we would be sitting in that same sterile classroom during the inevitable June heatwave.  The giant wall of glass windows used in each classroom created a greenhouse effect that would surely make us sweaty, bored, catatonic adolescents.  NO, none of that mattered at all, because we were going to have a snow day. 

We would wake the next morning.  Unsure if it was indeed true.  Did the Lord provide yet another miracle?  We would eat our breakfast at the table as we gathered around the radio, tuned in to the local AM station.  Remember AM radio?  They would go through an immensely long list of cancellations.  We said our winter table grace, “O God, please let them say ‘our school name,’ while mom was secretly praying that school would not be cancelled.  Then there it was, an eternity later—“no school for all Attleboro schools!”  Thank you WARA, and thank you God!  After exuberant celebrations, we might be ushered back to bed, but it wasn’t likely we were going to sleep.  As we lay in bed- we began to make plans.  The day was ripe to possibilities.  We had the whole day ahead and nothing etched on our kid calendars.  There was no homework to be done.  The day was free to frolic and play.   We could do anything we wanted.

The funny thing about a snow day is that you think it is going to last forever.  It is really only a 24 hour reprieve from normalcy.   You get that furlough and you think you’re free forever.  It may get you out of school in the cold of winter, but that day will have to be made up.  It may get you out of the test or quiz in Calculus, but that test will be there the next day.  Chances are, if you haven’t studied for the test to that point, you probably are not going to use your day of clemency to study. 

When the potential disciples met Jesus it was a snow day.   They had been praying for this moment.  This moment was their salvation.  Some wanted the day to come, while others prayed against it.  To some it was a salvation, to others- an imposition.  I wonder if the disciples realized the full extent of what it meant to be a disciple or in my metaphor- the implications of a snow day.

The disciples saw the potential in the Christ.  Jesus the Messiah, was full of possibilities!  As his ministry began, they saw nothing but the beauty of the NOW!  Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching, preaching, and healing.  What the disciples didn’t understand was that for all of these miracles or gifts of our loving lord, there would be a price.  They would not have this man in their midst forever.

Remember when you were a kid, you thought you had all the time in the world.  You were going to cram as much activity into your snow day as possible.  I think of it this way with the disciples and Jesus.  Jesus knows that his time is limited.  He knows he has a short period of time to cram in as much teaching, preaching, and healing as possible.  This time that he has with the disciples is fleeting. He must make the most of it. 

I am not sure that the disciples fully understood it in the beginning with his early ministry.  They can’t see beyond the January cold.  They can’t see the burning arid days of June ahead. 

Jesus called to Peter and Andrew, and then James and John.  They immediately follow Jesus.  They are nearsighted enough to want to spend time with Jesus, as he may possibly be the Messiah, and then, they are farsighted enough because Jesus just may be the Messiah. 

Imagine being so sure of something that you are willing to drop everything and follow.  Mark uses the particular words to describe their following.  He uses the word, “immediately.”   Mark doesn’t describe them as hesitating, waffling, or going kicking and screaming.  Mark doesn’t share that any of the four needed to go get their affairs in order.  They just walked off the job.  I am sure at the time, Zebedee wasn’t too happy with this Jesus fellow.  

In many ways, we are like children who have just discovered that school has been canceled—we want to frolic the day away not believing that this euphoric day will end at some point.  But then there is the reality that this day must end.

Prepare yourselves not by wasting the day—but in preparation of the goal ahead. Fill your days with positive, life-enriching memories that will be your legacy.

Thank God for the snow days, but thank God for the days preparing us to reach a greater day—a day when eternal joy will be with us—the day when we are prepared to drop our nets, and our snow shovels—and follow the one who calls us.