Looking for a Shadow

We had to cancel our homeschool ski trip today- rain and slush on the mountain, but had the deeply consoling celebration of Groundhog Day to comfort us. I once met a woman from Puxtawanawny, Pa., home of Puxtawanawny Phil, the weather forecasting groundhog.

"Wow, your town must be so fun on Groundhog day!"
"You cannot imagine," she told me, rolling her eyes.

Unlike Easter or Halloween which is steeped in pagan origins, Groundhog Day has Godly roots. It began as the Christian celebration of Candelmas, in which the priest gave out candles to his parishioners. The number of candles had to be determined that would last the whole remaining winter, so the priests turned to animal prognosticators. Back in those days, hedgehogs were used, but in modern celebrations, Groundhogs became the weather-creature of choice. This may be because groundhogs are diurnal, unlike the nocturnal hedgehog, thus more likely to see their shadow. Shadows are notoriously tough to spot at midnight. Tradition tells us that if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. If hedgehogs see their shadows, they have gotten up too early and go back to bed.

However, there is an even sadder, and more likely evolutionary reason why weather predicting was transferred from the hedgehog to the groundhog. The hedgehog has a disturbing propensity of sticking its head in leftover food containers and then getting stuck, unable to get the container off. Hedgehogs were dying in droves from starvation until Mcdonalds redesigned their McFlurry containers to be more hedgehog friendly. This is a true story! The paucity of hedgehogs may well have led to the abandonment of Hedgehog Day in favor of Groundhog Day.

I always try to find what God is trying to say to me in the common events or discoveries of my day. Sometimes I struggle to connect the dots, but this one was easy. You never know how you will be used of God. Your fame, your usefulness, your splendor in the sun may be but a moment. You may spend a whole winter hibernating, unaware of the purpose for which you have been called, and then, WHAM, you are pulled out of your hole and raised for one glorious moment for all the world to see where or even IF your living presence will cast its shadow. Always be ready for that moment! Prepare yourself for the call, whenever it may come, whatever it may be.

"You must be so thrilled to be from such a famous town," I told the lady from Puxtawanawny, Pa.
"Well, Groundhog Day is fun...but the rest of the year, blink and you will miss it."
"But Groundhog Day...that must be amazing!"
"Oh yes, for that one day we are the most famous place in America."

Isaiah 38:7, 8, 17-19
"'This is the Lord's sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.'" So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back. For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
parents tell their children
about your faithfulness.



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