From the Home Place

January 2, 2026

On this date in 1949 the Midwest woke to what would later be termed, “The Blizzard of the Century! In most places the wind roared at a constant 60+ miles per hour. The snow clouds dumped a constant barrage of snow, blotting out the sun, moon and stars for hours upon long hours. The ’49er would leave a path of destruction like no one had ever seen before. Thousands and thousands of dead livestock, hundreds of dead people and entire states paralyzed by the massive snow drifts, some reaching 50-60 feet in height.

The endless howl of the wind, rattled windows, blew down trees and powerlines. The wind blew so hard that many people had drifts of snow inside their poorly insulated homes. Snow that would soon be melted for drinking water, in kittles on the wood stoves. Wood stoves that seemed to consume the wood supply within the home.

I’ve heard stories of families burning all of their wooden furniture in an attempt to stay alive. With layers of clothes on, huddled under piles of quilts, many would freeze to death, the entire family! I remember old timers telling of the riding past sod and log homes after the spring thaw, smelling the decay of human flesh inside the shacks that dotted the landscape. I once heard that one of our neighbor ladies, who had not seen her husband for days after he went to the barn to feed the milk cow and the horses, later found him frozen stiff in the outhouse, the only shelter he could find, disorientated by the blinding blizzard.

As a kid, I remember riding past large draws that had become the graveyard of entire herds of cattle, horses and sheep as they blew under a massive mountain of snow in the freezing cold. Even if an animal survived the blizzard, it was almost impossible to get hay and water to them after the storm broke.

The snow was so deep that fences and power lines could no longer be see, making travel extremely dangerous, even by foot. To ride a horse across the prairie was equally as dangerous. The traveler had to stay to the tops of hills where the wind had exposed an occasional glimpse of ground, yet, who knew what lie between those occasional glimpses of dry ground. The whole country seemed to be captured under a blanket of snow.

And yet, as terrible as the ’49 blizzard was, people dug out, climbed up and rebuilt. Though it took months, and even years for some, people came back to build better homes, new cattle and sheep herds, and to tell stories about a terrible time in American history.

Today, setting here in Wyoming, listening to the wind howl outside, I wonder what would happen in today’s culture if such a blizzard was to happen again? Would we be able to survive with our forced air furnaces, city water and sewer supplies? I fear that many would be found the next spring like those homesteaders after the 49er.

I marvel at that which God has placed inside of humans, the will to live. The will to not just survive, but to constantly better their living conditions, the unending determination to survive. I sat here thinking of what I would do to keep Miss Deb, myself and our neighbors alive during such a crisis. When it was all said and done, some would live, some would vanish, all according to God’s determination.

For just as the Bible states that none of us can add a single hair to our head, neither can any of us survive devastation without His help. Perhaps on January 2, 2026, we should each pause and praise our Heavenly Father for His protection and provision up to this date? And then maybe we should ask Him to “give us this day our daily bread,” realizing that each and every day, the storms of life could, and will bring the end to many lives. Yet if He allows us to see today to its completion, and then to see tomorrow, we should shout, “Glory to His name!” For you see dear friends, we are each just trying to survive the storms of life, one day-at-a-time.

I have no idea what this new year holds for us, yet I do know WHO holds this year for all of us. As such, we pray as our Lord Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.”

“Heavenly Father, use your people to fulfill Your plans. Give us strength, and gentleness, beyond ourselves. May our light so shine that those around us will see our good works and glorify our Father who is in Heaven! We seek Your provision, protection and Your power to walk with You in the times before us, Amen. Oh, and may Your Holy Spirit fall upon us like the blizzard of ’49, for Your glory and the good of those around us, for we ask all in the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!”

Looking forward with you, Neal