Cold or Things I Remember

I moved from Washington DC to Rapid City, South Dakota four months ago. Though I spent 23 years in Minnesota, my year in London and four years in DC had softened me. I became weak. In my time of winter purgatory I forgot the feeling of cold, real cold. I forgot the way jeans freeze as you walk around in 0 degree temperature (-18 degrees celsius for our foreign readers). Or how the skin tightens and the cheeks actually become rosy. In five years of dealing with mushy snow, I was delighted to rediscover the squeaky sound of boots walking on deeply cold snow. And with joy I remembered the beauty of cold snow faintly falling, covering the trees and grass in a downy blanket. The cold reminds me that I'm alive.
 

Cold and the Biblical Story

The temperature reads 54 degrees. The moisture has frozen to the inside of the windows. The thermometer between the window and the storm window read -2. NOAA.gov goes for -11. It's "freeze your boogers as you walk to the car" cold. 

Which brings me something I've always wondered about: what would the Biblical story and its metaphorical language look like if it had taken place somewhere cold? In the Bible the only mention of anything really cold is the snows of Mt. Harmon. And almost all the references to snow are similes--"as white as snow," or "scattered like snow on a hill." I think we would have references to Christ or God as the everlasting fire that does not go out and keeps you forever warm. And instead of a cloud of locusts, we'd get a mean Alberta Clipper followed by extreme negative temperatures.