Whiter Than Snow.

Snow Day.

All week long the Weather Channel has been predicting snow. I really didn't think we were going to get any though. I don't trust the weatherman. He lies to me. Lots.

But this time he was right. Flurries started falling while I was in my English class. The perfect little flakes swirling as they fell, buoyed up by the breath of the wind. It wasn't long before the temperature dipped just a little bit further and the flakes started to stick.

The snow is beautiful. I know that in other parts of the country that get lots of winter weather, the snow melts into icy sludge...or piles up on the side of the road and gets dirtied by car exhaust, turning it into "snirt"...or it falls on a dirt road and when it's not quite warm enough to turn into mud, it makes a big "snud" puddle.

It's not that way here in Alabama. Our snow falls in delicate flakes. It blankets the world in white. And it doesn't stay long enough for anything to blemish its pure perfection. We don't get much snow here in Alabama, but when it falls it stays as perfect and white as it was when it first tumbled from the clouds.

The white blanket of snow that covers the ground outside provides such a pretty parallel for the washing away of sins. In Isaiah 1:18 God reminds us of his power to cleanse us: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

What sweet assurance that verse gives to Believers. Through the blood of Christ, all of my nasty, dirty sinfulness is washed away. Someday I will stand blameless before the throne of God, not because of my perfect life, but because God is content to look on Christ's righteousness and pardon me.

Like the Psalmist who cried out "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7),I long for the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. I am so thankful that God has provided a way for us to be forgiven, that Jesus has triumphed over the power of sin. He has broken the chains that once bound me. He washes me white as snow.

I am so thankful that God gives us natural, tangible picutres of his work in our lives. Job 37:6 recognizes God's perpetual command over the forces of nature: "For to the snow he says, 'Fall on the earth,'". Today, He must have said "Fall on Alabama." So I'll enjoy the brilliant white-ness of the snow. And recognize that I am free and forgiven. I have been washed whiter than snow.