Lessons from a Snowstorm

Snow is both friend and foe. Just as folks in the snow-assaulted northeast know after several feet of the white stuff clogged highways, stranded motorists and cancelled 4,200 airline flights nationally. But skiers reveled in the white blanket as resorts filled their coffers in chair lift, equipment rental and accommodations income.

After a similar storm last December, I wrote about the Treasures of the Snow. Read it here.

In 1856, Henry David Thoreau is reported to have written of snowflakes, “How full of the creative genius is the air in which these are generated! I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat.”

Without directly affirming the Creator, Thoreau points to Him since the “creative genius” surely does reflect God’s amazing craftsmanship. The ultimate wisdom of antiquity is found in Job 38:22, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail …”

Snow frequently symbolizes purity, a pristine gifting from above. After his twin heinous deeds of adultery and murder, David pled, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7).

This week, we revisited a spectacular local lawn display. Its makers left no Christmas theme unbuilt or unlit and spared no money to show it all during the Christmas season. Front and center was a manger scene complete with Mary, Joseph, shepherds and wise men. Behind the manger is a simple sign that reads, “The Reason For The Season.”

But the Christ child was not visible. The heavy snow had completely covered the infant in the manger, and there was only a mound of white! No one had cleared the snow away, nor perhaps should they. Christ was the very purity of heaven lying in that Bethlehem manger, and one day He would be stained blood red on the Cross so that I could be “whiter than snow.” Strange, isn’t it, how a brutal snowstorm can be a salvation lesson?

I thought again of hearing believers in the jungles of Mexico singing an old Gospel song:

Blessed be the fountain of blood,
To a world of sinners revealed;
Blessed be the dear Son of God;
Only by His stripes we are healed.
Tho’ I’ve wandered far from His fold,
Bringing to my heart pain and woe,
Wash me in the blood of the Lamb,
And I shall be whiter than snow.

Refrain:
Whiter than the snow, Whiter than the snow,
Wash me in the blood of the Lamb,
And I shall be whiter than snow.

None of these people had ever seen snow, but they knew Christ’s purifying forgiveness for their sins, and that is all they needed to know.

The real treasure of the snow and truth in its storm is the lesson of saving grace they bring.

Dave Virkler