A Few Thoughts on Snow

     I was watching the coverage of the snowstorm in the northeast on a local TV station when they showed some old footage from the snowstorm in middle Georgia in February of 1973. It brought back a flood of memories. My wife and I have experienced two major snowstorms in the South during our lives. The storm in 1973 was a little over sixteen inches in an area that rarely sees snow. While living in Rome, GA,  in 1993, we had a blizzard that dumped nineteen inches of snow.  You can imagine what kind of problems these storms caused in the South. I am not a fan of the difficulties that snow causes, but I am like a little kid when I see a few snowflakes fall. It truly is beautiful. It is amazing how the white covering transforms the deadness of winter into a winter wonderland.

     Snow is one of many things that show the immeasurable creativity of our God. Think of how many snowflakes have fallen in the Northeast this weekend and then consider that no two snowflakes are alike. Each is beautiful in its own right, designed and fashioned by our Father. Snow is mentioned a number of times in the scripture, mostly as a means of giving a description of how white something is. Snow is sort of the standard for whiteness. If we say something is as white as snow, we are saying it is as white as it gets.  When David was repenting for his grievous sins in Psalms 51:7 he says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." If you remember, hyssop was used to apply the blood of the lamb in Exodus. Is that not what the blood of Jesus has done for us.  That was what the songwriter was expressing when he penned the words, "Whiter than snow, yes whiter than snow; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."  Because we know of nothing whiter than snow it gives just a hint of how complete the finished work of the cross was. Isaiah said, "Though your sins be as scarlet; they shall be as white as snow." He has taken the darkness of our sin, washed us and made us as white as snow.

      In the New Testament Mark describes the transfigured Christ this way, "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." When people go snow skiing it is imperative that they where goggles because they can be blinded by the sun reflecting off the snow. Eyes can be seriously damaged because of the brilliance. Thinking about that makes me think of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision. They used two of their wings to cover their eyes. Imagine, here were creatures created to dwell in the presence of God and yet they could not look upon Him because of the brilliance of His glory. John in Revelation said that the hair of Christ was like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire.  Later in the passage he says His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.  The brilliance of the sun reflecting off the snow is only a feeble comparison to the glory of the Son.  Thank you, Lord, that you have made us whiter than snow.