As White as Snow

The snow came in overnight, silently and persistently dropping tiny flakes for hours while we slept. When I awoke, my window offered the view of a pristine, white blanket that had covered the gravel, half-dead grass, and copious amounts of dog poop in my backyard. Buried by a thick layer of snow, there was no proof of our sloppy yard maintenance or the four dogs that live in our home. There was only the perfect, blinding whiteness of the powder-soft snow, coating every inch of ground, smoothing over rough edges.

Colorado abounds with beauty that points me to God, from the mountains to the sunsets to the rolling prairies, I’m in awe of the creation laid out before me. The snow was yet another stunning display to this Texas girl.  It was the deepest, softest snow to ever rain down on my home, and it reminded me of the imagery found in Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.” What a beautiful picture to see Christ’s sacrifice take my messy, unkempt life and cover it in a blinding beauty, washing over my every sin and imperfection. 

But waking means activity, disturbing the perfect snow with our imperfect lives. Four dogs need to go out, four kids want to play, and the snow becomes crushed underfoot. The immaculate surface disappeared as boot and paw tracks littered the yard, exposing the ugliness beneath. It was sad to watch the landscape of snow become disturbed– once beautiful, now smashed, scattered, and dirty, a stinging image of my treatment of Christ’s sacrifice. His perfect gift, trampled by sin, stomped on with my pride, self-righteousness, selfishness, and anger, exposing my ugliness instead of Christ’s holiness.

Eventually, our kids quit playing outside, with their cold quota fulfilled they required warmth and hot chocolate instead. Snow fell throughout the day and the wind blew in strong gusts, shifting the powdery flakes like dunes at the ocean.  I watched the drifting flakes from the window continue to fall and settle on our messy-again yard. They weren’t large or heavy, but small and persistent. Combined with the wind, the shifting snow covered our pock-marked prints and they slowly disappeared, edges first smoothed, then filled in completely, leaving no proof of the mess we created. It was another humbling image of Christ’s sacrifice in action. Even when my messy, sin-filled, imperfect life is on full display, God’s mercy continues to descend and washes me white as snow.

Praise God that he does not expect perfection that I can never achieve. He doesn’t guilt-trip me over my inability to keep a pristine yard or a sinless life. He knows my heart, he knows my failures, and he knows his sacrifice is enough. From me, he requires my love and devotion, the submission of my imperfect life to his perfect will. As outlined in Micah 6:8, “To do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God.” I still fail. I inevitably misstep and let my selfishness trump God’s standard. I tromp around with my sin, heavy and crushing, yet I am forgiven. Because of his love, my sin does not consume me because his compassions never fail, and his mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

I will revel in my newness and the beauty of a life forgiven, mirroring the way my child-like heart jumps upon seeing a snow-filled window pane. I will enjoy the freedom in knowing that I am made complete, not because of what I do, but because of what Christ has done for me. I will let forgiveness rain down in my life, settle over my sin, softening my rough edges, changing my landscape, and making me whole.

“This is all my hope and peace: Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness: Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” — Robert Lowry