Let It Snow
January 9, 2010
by Alan Cornett
If you’re like me, you’re probably tired of shoveling snow. We had three consecutive days of snow last month. Returning from a trip there was snow again. Two days later there was more snow. Shoveling and more shoveling.
Like all of nature, snow is under the control of God. Elihu well said of God, “For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth.” (Job 37:6) The Lord Himself spoke “of the storehouses of the snow” (Job 38:22). Snow fulfills His word and is commanded to praise the Lord (Psalm 148:7-8).
Despite the shoveling, there is great beauty in snow, the way it blankets the earth in white, everything beneath it hidden from site. And each subsequent snow shower hides what went on before. The car tracks, the footsteps (and driveways!) are hidden as if no one had been there before.
Scripture aptly uses snow as a symbol of purity. Jeremiah laments the loss of the purity of the princes of Judah: “Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk,” but “Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets.” (Lamentations 4:7-8). In turning from faithfulness to God they had soiled themselves and the glory of the position God had given them. Job, recognizing that purity is unobtainable on his own, says, even “If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye.” (Job 9:30)
It is no surprise, then, that Scripture points to snow as a powerful illustration of our forgiveness before God. David, faced with the reality of his sin with Bathsheba, cries for mercy before God. He writes, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow….Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.” (Psalm 51:7,9) God calls us to recognize His wonderful mercy and forgiveness when He says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow….”(Isaiah 1:18a).
No matter how ugly the landscape, snow will turn it smooth, white, beautiful. God’s mercy and forgiveness has the same powerful impact on our own spiritual landscape. Ugly and marred by sin though we are, God can cover over our guilt as thought it had never been there. But, like David, we must recognize our sin and seek mercy from Him. As the Lord continues in Isaiah, our sins can be white as snow “if you are willing and obedient” (Isaiah 1:19). And in receiving that spiritual snow we ourselves can be transformed into a reflection of our Savior who has garments and hair “white as snow” (Daniel 7:9, Revelation 1:14).
Let it snow!