Today is the first “snow day” of the season for our local school students.  The snow began today at around 4 AM.  You may not at first think this is a topic related to chaplaincy.  I assure you it does relate.  First, parents of children still need to report to work.  So sometimes this means their children are self-supervised instead of being supervised by the school they attend while the parents are away from home.  Second, snow has a magnetic attraction for children.  They want to play in it doing things like making snow men, making snow balls, and sledding.  While these activities can be done safely sometimes injury does result.  Sledding is probably one of the activities that bring up the most accidents.

I had dealt with anxious parents who rush from their place of employment to the hospital to see how their child is doing.  Someone either from home or the hospital has called them to say their child is in our Emergency Department being treated for a sledding accident.  The look of relief on the faces of the parents as they see that the injuries their child received have only been minor always touches my heart.   This is a display of the love a parent has for a child in its purest form.  So today on our first “snow day” I offer anyone out in the snow to be careful and avoid injury.