White As Snow...

On January 29th of this year, five inches of snow fell. Definitely one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen. Since then, it’s snowed twice, each providing its own beauty that is hard to tire of. I’ve been thinking for the past few weeks about what is about the snow that I love so much.

It’s simply magical to the youth, and a rare peaceful stillness for the adult. It falls gently and quietly. I’ve never seen lightening or heard thunder in a snow storm. If you aren’t looking for it, you could miss it. It seems that when snow comes around, life tends to slow down. Things that seem important get pushed to the back burner. Appointments that were set are canceled. Activities are postponed till another time. Things you can’t do when snow isn’t around become higher on the priority list. Executives play together in the snow with their kids. Snowfights and snowmen are erected out of the imagination. Others of us could be found nestled by a fire soaking up the beauty that is outside. That’s me… I think that there is absolutely NOTHING like fresh untouched snow. No footprints. No snowmen. No snowfights. Just the simple blanket of snow covering the earth.

To me, God is the snow. He comes quietly. If I am not looking for Him, I will miss His arrival and His presence. He comes and covers me. There’s nothing I need to be or have for His arrival. He covers the corners of my heart and the daily traveled roads with His blood just as the snow covers the pavement and the stray grassy patches. He doesn’t arrive to condemn my heart’s current state. He doesn’t require me to have my junk together. He covers it as it is. He knows the conditions of my heart. He knows what lies beneath the covering.

The untouched snow is amazing. I’m definitely a fan of admiring the layer of beauty for a good while before it is trampled on or playfulness gets its hand in it. This time when I saw the snow after a snowball fight, I wondered if that’s what my heart looks like sometimes. God comes and covers it with His blood, and I come and pick up chunks of it and throw it aside leaving the matters of the heart exposed. It’s easy to let God into some parts of our hearts and try to keep Him from other areas. The reality is… He desires to have ALL of our heart. Not part of it. I was amazed as God reinforced this message to me. That night as I went back out to view the beauty in moonlight, all of the places where we had disturbed the snow and all the exposed ground was recovered. Not just to a small degree, but each hole was refilled to the level of the untouched snow. When we allow God in, He covers completely and fully.

I’m praying that I can be more open to the covering of God’s blood. I don’t think I intentionally close God off to certain areas of my life. I think many of us try to get our “junk” together before allowing God in. I’m realizing more and more each day that He knows my heart in and out, even more than I do. I desire what David prayed in Psalm 51, that with the washing of Christ’s blood, that I, too, will be washed whiter than snow. I pray that as God covers every aspect of my heart that I will reflect the beauty and work of God in my life. I pray that I will reflect purity and completeness as He continues to cover me on a daily basis as I seek Him.

                      Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
                          wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
                                                                             Psalm 51:7

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