I have to be honest and confess here and now that I don’t like snow. For me, it’s too cold, too slippery, too dangerous to walk on for my unsteady legs. When we moved to Maine, I often told people that Harry had moved us to hell and it was cold. We had almost two hundred inches of snow the first winter that we were there, with snow reaching our second story windows, and that was not an exaggeration at all. We lived there for four years (I called it surviving) and God taught me a lot of lessons there, mostly about not being so self-centered and thoughtless. That being said, I never really appreciated the snow there…it quickly became brown (or yellow) and a real mess to walk on or drive in during the eight months it was present. However, now that I am aged and no longer living in the frozen north, I can reflect on the imagery of snow and appreciate what the Scriptures say about it.

Scarlet is a deep and vivid red color. If it spills on anything, it will definitely be noticeable. So, when I think about how my sin is scarlet, covering my entire life, that is a brutal picture of reality. There is not one part of my former life that my sin did not affect. But thanks be to God who provided His Son to cleanse me completely from my sins! I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior on February 28, 1973, and my life was completely changed. Not only did I leave my sins behind, but I was no longer stained by it. God looked down and saw whiteness, not red. The red was in the blood that His Son shed. The white is as pure as snow.

I still don’t like snow—the cold, the danger it presents. But I do like to see it now, especially when it is freshly fallen and a pristine white. No small animal tracks, no dirt, just white as far as the eye can see. That is an advantage of living rurally…there is no traffic and until we move our car to go out, there are no tire tracks, ruts or mud. Everything is white…an indescribable color that glistens in the sun and reflects the soft light of the moon. That is how God means for us to be, glowing in the reflection of His Son, totally clean from all of our impurities, the sin that separated us from Him.

One of my favorite old hymns when I was a new Christian was “There’s Power in the Blood.” At the time, I didn’t really understand all of the words but I liked the music and I enjoyed raising my voice in song with the others who clapped and sang along as the church band played. These days, I still enjoy this hymn; however, I don’t see it as a song to raise the enthusiasm of the crowd but as a song that acknowledges the sacrifice of our Savior and the demonstration of the powerful love of God. Do I sometimes mess up and sin? Yes, unfortunately. I am still a sinner saved by grace. But the good news is that each time I choose the wrong way, God’s Spirit corrects me, I confess and He washes me clean. I praise the Father who provides such wonderful grace and mercy that I can share my image of snow with you and pray that the power that is in the blood will also cleanse you from sin as you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The imagery of snow will long be with me, not the mountains of snow in Maine, but the acres of snow that I sometimes glimpse in my front yard. Pure, untouched and shining for God…just like I want to be!

There’s Power in the Blood