I am the family gardener and charged with making things "painterly" for my artist-wife Roxanne. That is a tall order at this time of year, because the winter garden seems to be at rest. There is still plenty going on, but most of it is hidden from view under the soil.  Roots still grow and absorb nutrients during mild winters like we've been having. Leaves and mulch go moldy, adding another year of humus to the garden soil, and the worms might still be at work below the frost line. 

Above the soil, the bones of the garden show, and there there are barks, and shapes, and painterly-forms. The large grasses bend under the snow, making holes and niches for the Snow Elves who almost certainly burrow inside. We're seeing the very first winter flowers now; witch hazel and hellebores. There is action in the winter garden. You just have to look for it.  

Most of Jesus' life seems similarly hidden from view; growing up in Nazareth as a child, as a teen, and as a young adult, right up to his thirties. What did he do during that time of "being with"?  Part of the scandal of incarnation is that God... Jesus... led a perfectly human life.  He probably stubbed his toe.  He might have broken an arm as a boy... perhaps he cut himself with a carpenter's tool. Maybe he tended sheep and slept-rough outside, or helped bring in crops from the field.  He certainly experienced all the gritty day-to-day parts of human life; the joys of growing up, watching neighbors get married and have children... the pain and suffering of conflict; of illness and death. Nothing was said about most of Jesus' life, and yet there had to be plenty of action there... growing up... being formed... getting rooted.

For me, Jesus can seem hidden from view, even today.  Where is he? I have to look hard to find him and even when I think I have had a glimpse, it can seem sketchy. To me... maybe to you... looking for Jesus is like looking for action in a winter garden. There are a few winterly-places where we could go looking for Jesus though: