Sugar Snow

There was a dusting of snow on the ground.
How could that be?
It is already spring!

The Little House series of books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, were always favorites of ours.
Every time I see snow in early spring, I think of Sugar Snow.
Little Laura thought that Sugar Snow was literally sweet snow that you could eat.
Pa explained how it got that name.

It’s called Sugar Snow, because a snow this time of year means that men can make more sugar. You see, this little cold spell and the snow will hold back the leafing of the trees, and that makes a longer run of sap. (taken from Little House In The Big Woods)

Laura’s Grandpa spent the winter making wooden buckets and little troughs.
He had them all ready so that when the warm weather came, he could collect the sap that began to move in the trees.
Laura’s Grandpa would make a small hole in the tree and hammer the trough into the hole.

The sap, you know is the blood of the tree. It comes up from the roots, when warm weather begins in the spring, and it goes to the very tip of each branch and twig, to make the green leaves grow. Well, when the maple sap came to the hole in the tree, it ran out of the tree, down the little trough and into the bucket. (taken from Little House In The Big Woods)

The sap is the blood of the tree.

God set up a sacrificial system.
The people offered sacrifices of bulls and goats to atone for their sins.
Day after day, the people came to offer their sacrifices.
They knew that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

God the Father knew that this sacrificial system was only temporary.
It pointed to Something greater.
It pointed to the One whose Blood is Life.
It pointed to Jesus.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

The sap, moving through the tree, makes the green leaves grow.
The sap is life.
The sap promotes growth.

The perfect Blood of Jesus, our sinless Savior, is our life.
Jesus’ Blood promotes growth in us as we become more like Him.

Laura’s Grandpa made little troughs and wooden buckets.
The sap did not gush from the tree.
It dripped down slowly and was collected in the buckets.

When we come to the Cross of Jesus, we humbly ask for forgiveness.
We see our sin so clearly when we see Jesus nailed to that cross in our place.

Can your see the Blood on His brow, coming from the crown of thorns?
Can you see the Blood dripping down from the nail wounds in His hands and feet?
We stand at the cross knowing His death was meant for us.
He took the suffering and the pain…instead of us…because He loves us that much.

We stand at the cross and His Blood cleanses us.
His Blood does not gush forth.
It drips down slowly…covering completely…one person at a time.

One drop of His precious Blood is Life for us!
Just one drop…received in faith.

His Blood cleanses us so that we are white as snow.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18)

I am so glad we had snow on the ground…even though it is spring.
It is sugar snow…for the life of the tree.

Come to the Cross.
The Blood is moving through the Tree.
He is the Vine…and we are the branches.
We are nourished when we remain in Him.
He is our Life.