Snow – It’s All Covered

The other great thing I think about when I think about snow is Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, says Yahweh, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Just as snow covers all things, creating a new landscape, a new perspective, so the forgiveness of God covers all of our sins and brings us into a new way of looking at life; refreshing our minds, our hearts, our souls. Few words have been written that compare to the comfort found in Psalm 32:1-2, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”

How sad it is that people don’t understand that a knowledge of sin and its origin and destructive power is vital to our well-being – it is vital that we know sin so that we may know forgiveness in Jesus; it is vital that we know our transgressions so that we may know what it is to have them covered. The irony is that while we deny the existence of sin on one hand, we spend our lives attempting to medicate it on the other hand – we try to cover what only God can cover, we attempt to cover and deny at the same time.  

As I write this I should point out that the idea of us needing to forgive ourselves is an idea that has no foundation in Scripture; we are taught to forgive others, not to forgive ourselves as if we’ve done something against ourselves. Our sin is against God and it is what God thinks that matters – our solace and forgiveness is found in God in Christ alone – when we repent and ask His forgiveness then we have peace with God and in having peace with God we come to find His peace living within us. As John writes (1 John 1:9), “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Freshly fallen snow covering the land, what a picture of the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ. No matter the breath or depth of my transgressions, whether pubic or private, open or hidden, in Christ God’s forgiveness blankets my life with forgiveness and I may approach each day anew as if my footprints have yet to trod the path of life. Jesus offers me a perpetual new beginning, hope in a new day, and relief from a stricken conscience and guilt.

Sin and guilt cannot be medicated away in perpetual denial; that is torture. We cannot forgive ourselves but we can torture ourselves. We wonder at the self-destructiveness exhibited by teenagers inflicting cuttings on themselves; but adults do the same thing in living narcissistic and hedonistic lives…most of us just learn to do it in somewhat respectable fashion.

Experiencing the snow of God’s forgiveness not only sets us free to live in intimate relationship with God, it also gives us liberty to forgive others, indeed, it mandates that we forgive others…after all…others may have sinned against us but we have sinned against God – who has committed the greater sin?

No wonder walking in snowy woodlands is akin to walking in a cathedral, the snow and the altar both speak of the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ who was sinless; He became sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It may snow but seldom in our region of Virginia, but the image and reality of snow is something that I can carry in my heart and mind in all seasons of life.