Snow is a beautiful thing to see, isn’t it? There’s a softness; a gentleness to it. At least there is in West Tennessee! My sister in law in Maryland says the big snows are only appealing to folks (like us) who don’t have to deal with it. Pictures of the 12+ inches of snow on her deck were pretty overwhelming. Still, there is a magical quality about it. I am reminded of an old Snuffy Smith cartoon. (If you don’t know the reference, ask your nearest older person!) Their yard was filled with all sorts of tools and stuff. When it snowed overnight, the yard was transformed into a beauty to behold. The image I remember best was the axe still stuck in the chopping block. The snow transformed it into an angel with glorious wings made from the snow and ice on the axe handle.
Snow is often used as an image of purity. New snow is white and clean. The prophet Isaiah reminded us that God would wash our sins “as white as snow.” The great, wonderful thing about God’s cleansing is that He washes us from the inside out. When Snuffy’s snow melted, the angel went back to being an axe handle. Our “white as snow” never melts! God washes us once and for all. In fact, He doesn’t just wash us, He recreates us! In Christ, we are a new creation, old things are passed away and all things are become new! And it doesn’t depend on temperature, barometric pressure, or humidity either. Rejoice in the new creation you are in Christ. Live in that reality. Display it to a dying world that is lost in a “snow job” of legalism or enslaved to status, money, and power.
love ya, Bret.