WE STILL HAVE a little snow piled up in our yard and parking areas, but a week ago, we had a lot more.
The first blast in early February left a bit, but the real blast was from the notorious Fraser River outflow that funneled super cold temperatures and snow to our doorsteps.
Vicki and I were on a Costco run when it hit that afternoon a couple of weeks ago. Light snowflakes blew around us as we loaded our vehicle after shopping.
As we got into Port Angeles, snow was coming down harder, and as we went from sea level through town and up the truck route, we began to wonder how it would be going up to our home and winery at 500 feet elevation.
That’s not really very high, but experience has shown the final hump to get over our little hill could be daunting with slick roads.
Sure enough, our tires began to spin on our front-wheel-drive van.
Traction was zip as we tried to make it over that hump.
We realized we were in trouble.
After a few more failed attempts, we slid and swerved backward into a neighbor’s driveway.
We were safe and sound but stuck.
We called a friend and he came first to try to pull us out to no avail and then kindly drove us home in his four-wheel-drive pickup.
The van stayed stuck down the road for a couple of days.
Over those days, I walked down to check on it and see if I could get it unstuck.
The wonderful county snowplow and sanding trucks did a great job to make the road safe to drive, but they also plowed snow into a miniature mountain range on the roadsides (you know what I mean, I bet).
The heap blocked my way to the road and it froze solid over those days. My snow shovel was useless in trying to budge a pass to the road.
For the next days, when I hoofed down to check on the van, a lot of people from up our road stopped to ask if I needed any help.
Some drove on the other side of the road from me to be safe.
I thanked the ones who stopped and told them I was OK.
I didn’t actually know most of the folks who drove by, but I usually recognized their vehicle.
The window was down for the folks who stopped to ask if I needed help, and I could actually see and hear a real person.
The driver of the car up the street became an instant neighbor.
I’m reminded of the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10. I think we all know the story well enough not to have to repeat it here, but a “legal expert” asked Jesus about “who is my neighbor” after Jesus’ story about who did and did not stop to help the man who had been robbed and beaten.
The “neighbor,” everyone agreed, was the one who stopped and took care of the robbed man.
It turned out to be the Samaritan in the story.
The religious elites in the story, and the ones you might think would help, passed by the robbed man, some even walking on the other side of the road to avoid him.
Samaritans were outcast and the least likely to help a Jew in the expectations of Jewish society at the time.
The point of Jesus’ story was that the person who showed mercy was the real neighbor.
For us today, even when there isn’t a snowstorm, showing mercy with compassion and kindness to the stranger is the way we act out God’s love for us.
God’s love is made real in the way we help our neighbor, whoever or wherever they might be.
I think the snowstorm made our community more neighborly.
How about yours? Oh, that it took a snowstorm to bring new neighbors together.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Don Corson is an Ordained Deacon in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) and the winemaker for a local winery. He is also the minister for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Forks. His email is ccwinemaker@gmail.com.
