Life Within the Snow

It is winter in these parts, and that means cold temperatures, ice, and snow. On a snowy day, I saddled up and rode into town for some supplies. As I was in the general store, my prospector friend Stormy Waters and her friend Ruby Slippers burst through the door, brushing the snow from their jackets.

We talked while they shopped. Ruby does not mind the weather, but Stormy wants it to go away and have greener things come back to life. While I feel the same as Stormy, I have become stoical about it and endure winter.

Winter trees in snow, Pexels / Jeffrey Czum, modified at PhotoFunia

Ancient pagan cultures celebrated the arrival of spring, which meant the return of life. Or so they thought. What those folks could not know is that there is an abundance of life in winter. Do you really want to eat snow? Yes, it is frozen water vapor, but there are living things in it!

When it comes to the seasons, we often associate life with spring, not winter. Depending on where you live, winter brings a barren landscape, hibernating animals, and snow. But even snow harbors its own microscopic garden of life that we have only just unearthed within the last decade. It might look different from a field of wildflowers, but it’s cultivated by the same Creator.

To read the rest of this short article, skate on over to "Winter’s Lively Microbiome."