SNOW!

Yup! It snowed here last week, creating a 24-hour snowfall record, over 12.5 inches, breaking the 1964 record of 12.1 inches. About 200,000 homes left in the dark. About 1,500 flights canceled in DFW and other airports in the south.

Snow everywhere. Icy roads. Dallas Seminary canceled classes Thursday evening and all day Friday. (It was, however, fun to see the children in the Seminary community frolicking outdoors all bundled up, making snowmen around the campus!).

Snow. Frozen water crystals. Each flake with roughly 10¹⁸ molecules of water, give or take a few billion, depending on temperature and humidity. And growing in clouds by the impressively named Wegener-Bergeron-Findeison process which, I am happy to confess I know nothing about, and which, I am even more happy to leave to atmospheric scientists to comprehend. All I know is that snow causes some eerie lighting effects. That photo was taken from the balcony of my townhome around midnight three days ago. Everything was white and bright, with the crystalline structure of snow diffusely reflecting the whole spectrum of lamplight, causing it all to look a brilliant, if eerie, bluish white—snow white!

It all looked so … so clean!

No wonder the writers of Scripture used snow as a metaphor for cleansing from sin.

David pleaded, after his egregious activities in 2 Samuel 11–12—adultery and murder.

Purify me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean;
Wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:7

He was right. Only God can purify. Only God can wash. And only God can wash as white as snow.

“Come now …,”
says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.”
Isaiah 1:18

Yes, they will. And, yes, God can cleanse.

For God demonstrates
His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

And taking our place, Jesus paid for our sins, fully and finally and forever. And for those who place their trust in Jesus Christ as their only God and Savior, eternal life is guaranteed.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Sins gone. Hearts cleansed. No longer scarlet. But white as snow.

Have you been to Jesus
for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing
for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
Elisha Hoffman, 1878

Indeed, the Bible describes God Himself wearing garments as white as snow.

I kept looking until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His vesture was like white snow.
Daniel 7:9

Wow! In some way, we get to be like Him. His clothing ours! We are granted God’s purity and righteousness.

He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

We did. We became … white as snow. Praise God!