By Ashlie Miller

What do you get when you borrow three snow shovels and bring out your gas-powered leaf blower (aka a red-neck snow blower)? Well, when the conditions are right, you get a block party!

Normally, our family observes Sundays as the Sabbath. We gather for worship with our church, enjoy a lunch at home, and then rest and refresh before another busy week. Work completed on this day is that which displays care for others or an “ox in the ditch” situation (see Luke 14:5). While we own no oxen nor do we have ditches as part of our landscape, the snowpocalypse that greeted us on Saturday left many of our neighbors, particularly those with shaded, steep driveways, in a fix.

While one of my sons and I were making our way back from a long winter walk, we saw several neighbors out, making the most of the sunshine while clearing driveways of the fluffy white stuff, thankful that most of it was not yet compact and hardened (icy!). One set of neighbors had three of the most beautiful things (well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the right setting) – three glorious snow shovels! What a novelty in the South, where dirt spades work only marginally better at snow removal on a driveway than the garden shovels adorning most garages and tool sheds. Our neighbors down the street had borrowed snow shovels from their next-door neighbors, who, in turn, loaned them to us.

At 2 p.m., something glorious occurred in our cul-de-sac –  as other neighbors came out to thaw and began making the most of their garden shovels, a gathering of sorts appeared. Children came out to run around, make giant snow bases for snowmen with some of the adults, or to help shovel a neighbor’s driveway, even if only for five minutes. Teens had a chance to flex their muscles by shoveling in record time (thanks to the lightness of the snow!) and use their brains by repurposing the gas-powered leaf blower to clear out paths. Adults connected with some neighbors for the first time, while others reconnected. Babies were held and made over, and even the pups relished the freedom of socializing. All the hustle, bustle, and movement helped stamp down much of the cul-de-sac in a more delightful way than a snowplow!

After almost two hours of work, play, and socializing, neighbors returned the shared shovels, shook hands, and offered thanks – not just for the tools and muscles, but also the impromptu block-party that was much needed. After all, we are Southerners, not accustomed to consecutive weekends of isolation (at least, not the sort we don’t choose for ourselves).

Sometimes, the burdens we can lighten as acts of Sabbath mercy and care are piles of snow on driveways. And sometimes hospitality is shown less through soups and sweet treats (which I’m all for, and receive gratefully!) and more through snow shovels and leaf blowers being shared in the cul-de-sac.