Jack Frost - A Pleasant Childhood Memory!

This time of year brings me back to my childhood days especially when I see frost on the window panes as well as the trees and lawn."Jack Frost was here last night", my mom would cheerfully call out. We would run with gleefull anticipation to see his icy handiwork. We never saw Jack Frost, but we did see the evidence that he was there-or was he? Who was this legendary character Jack Frost? Was he real or just a figment of the imagination. As the crow flies, I went straight to the books to find out about this pleasant childhood memory, Jack Frost. According to the American Heritage Dictionary: Jack Frost is frost or cold weather personified.

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Also according to Wikipedia, in British Isles folklore, Jack Frost appears as an elfish creature who personifies crisp, cold, winter weather, a variant of Father Winter (also known as "Old Man Winter"). Some believe this representation originated in Germanic Folklore specifically in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse winter customs.

Tradition holds Jack Frost responsible for leaving frosty crystal patterns on windows on cold mornings(window frost or fern frost).

Old Man Winter like the elfish creature Jack Frost is a personification of winter, sometimes also called Father Winter. He may be an alternative older name for Father Christmas and has been identified with theOld English god Woden.

In Russian folklore, Old Man Winter is also identified with Ded Morozel the Russian Santa Claus.
Old Man Winter is also used in many poems.

In my heart of hearts I knew he wasn't real, but now I know for sure who he is, and where he came from.

I also check out the Watchtower library on "Jack Frost", and low and behold they had a very interesting article.

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*** Autumn Leaves Bow Out in a Blaze of Glory *** (g87 9/22 pp. 16-18)

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It starts out by saying, "JACK FROST gets credit for it, but he has nothing to do with it.

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The leaves do it, but they are forced into it. The trees themselves start it, but they are acting in self-defense".......What about those beautiful fall colors? "The freezing presence of the legendary Jack Frost has no role in this drama. That imaginary sprite with his paint pot is no member of the cast".

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Read the article and find out what really causes the change in color of the leaves. I learned something interesting in that article which I didn't realize before, about why the leaves on the trees actually fall to the ground in the fall, it is not because of the cold weather, but, and I quote:

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"Jack Frost has had no role in the drama; nor is it the approaching cold of winter that causes the leaves to fall. The tree itself does it to conserve its water. During winter, very little is available from a frozen earth, and the broad leaves of deciduous trees give off large amounts of it. Without new supplies of water, these leaves would soon dehydrate the tree. So to forestall this, the tree sheds its leaves and seals the open wound with a layer of corky scar tissue.
The tree must retain its water, or the show will not go on next year".

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Of course the one who should get all the credit is our wise and loving creator Jehovah God.

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I would like to add to this blog some cute "Jack Frost" poems.

Jack Frost

A pretty brook was running at play

With little Jack Frost on a cold winter's day.
It stopped to rest at the foot of a hill

Making a pond all quiet and still.
"Aha!" said Jack Frost, "Now isn't that nice?

"And quickly he turned the water to ice.
-Author Unknown

Jack Frost

By C.E. Pike

Look out! Look out! Jack Frost is about!

He’s after our fingers and toes;

And all through the night,

The gay little sprite

Is working where nobody knows.

He’ll climb each tree,

So nimble is he,

His silvery powder he’ll shake.

To windows he’ll creep

And while we’re asleep

Such wonderful pictures he’ll make.

Across the grass

He’ll merrily pass,

And change all its greenness to white.

Then home he will go And laugh ho, ho ho!

What fun I have had in the night.

Jack Frost

Jack Frost came to town

One cold late autumn day

My windows they are painted now
With pictures white and gray.

As days grow shorter

Jack grows bold,

He does not care

whom he makes cold!

Ice on windows,

snow dusting the ground.

In the cold black night

he blusters around.

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It is of interest to note, that the Bible credits Jehovah with the formation of ice and frost.

He asks Job, "Out of whose belly does the ice actually come forth. And as for the hoarfrost of heaven, who indeed brings it to birth?" (Job 38:29)

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Also, Elihu tells Job, "By the breath of God the ice is given. And the breadth of waters is under constraint." (Job 37:10)

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Psalms 147: 16, 17, says, "He is giving snow like wool; Hoarfrost he scatters just like ashes. He is throwing his ice like morsels. Before his cold who can stand?"

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Jehovah gives forth the hoarfrost with as much ease as a man scatters ashes with his hand. It covers, encrusts, such things as trees, grass, and houses with a covering, just as though ashes had been scattered over them by Jehovah's invisible hand. This was nicely brought our from the "Insight of The Scriptures" publication under Hoarfrost.

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So the truth is Jehovah is the artist and creator of the beautiful ice formations and snow that we see during this time of the year, not Jack Frost. He deserves all the honor, and the glory. May we be zealous in telling others about our wise and loving Father, who never ceases to amaze us.

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Yes, I can still hear my mom saying, "Come quick, look at the windows, Jack Frost was here." And, although those words bring a warm feeling of happy memories of childhood days, I feel so much more joy and contentment now when I can say, "look, come look at what Jehovah has done!"

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This is Raven-as the crow flies