Snowfall

It is a winter wonderland right outside my door.
The first measurable snowfall.
It started to snow after the school buses left.
No two hours late…no early dismissal.

For those of us who are blessed to be home today…incredible beauty.
For those of us blessed to be home today…prayer for the safety of those we love.
That is when I like snow the best…when everyone is safe at home.

Something so small as a snowflake can stop traffic…slow down rush hour commutes.
Something so small as a snowflake can close schools…delay trains and buses.
Something so small as a snowflake can be utterly beautiful!

Such intricacy.
Such evidence of a magnificent Creator.
No two snowflakes are alike.

We, His creatures, are so much like snowflakes.
No two sets of fingerprints are alike.
We are intricate…beautiful.

How can innumerable snowflakes fall so quietly?
How can the silence of a snowfall be heard?

Snow covers the world like a blanket.
It tucks it in for the night.
The world lays beneath the snow in peaceful slumber.

Freshly fallen snow beckons.
It calls children to make snowmen and snow angels.
It calls adults to be children again.

Snow cleanses.
The whiteness of it.
The purity of its covering.
Nothing laid bare…everything covered…insulated…waiting.

Freshly fallen snow…without footprints…tempts.
To be the first one to step on the clean slate.
To leave your footprint as if to say…I was here.

Until a shovel disturbs the beauty, there are no paths in the snow.
You must make your own way.
Forge a path all your own.

When the snow finally stops there is a period of rest.
Selah.
A time of anticipation until snow pants are put on…coats are zippered.

Then you hear it…the sounds of children.
Squeals of delight.
Sleds scraping along the sidewalk…looking for the perfect hill.

Robert Frost put pen to paper and wrote about a snowfall in his poem,
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

 

David wrote about snow in his psalm of lament.
He sinned when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife.
The prophet, Nathan, confronted David with his sin by telling him a mashal…a parable.

The mashal was about a rich man and a poor man.
The rich man took the poor man’s small lamb, even though he had many sheep of his own.
David, as king, was furious over the behavior of the rich man and said he deserves to die.
Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:1-7)

David saw himself and his sin in the parable Nathan told him.
David’s sin cost Uriah his life, and the life of his newborn son.
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:13)

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. (Psalm 51:7-12)

Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Only God can wash us that clean.
Only God can forgive us our sins when we come to Him in true repentance.

In order to be as white as snow, we first have to be covered in red.
We must have the covering of Jesus’ blood over us.
The blood that Jesus shed for our sins on the cross.
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

All of this…because of a snowfall.
His Whisper…in every flake…falling peacefully to the ground.

He whispers.
We are made new.

Snow falling.
Peaceful.
Clean.