For someone who sees snow every day for six months a year, snow is normal and maybe even depressing and annoying. For someone who doesn't see snow very often, snow is extremely pretty and a site for sore eyes. For someone who has never seen snow ever, snow is other-worldly and similar to seeing a million dollars because they've heard of it and know it exists, they've just never seen it with their own eyes.
I fall into the category of someone who doesn't see snow very often but finds it gorgeous to look at. I love watching it fall, accumulate throughout the day, and turn the world white, but there's something funny about snow turning the world white; at the same time that it turns the world white, it also creates a lot of brown.
If you've ever driven in the snow, you've probably noticed that the roads not only get dangerous, but they also get really dirty looking. There's something about snow that makes the cars we drive and the roads we drive on extremely gross. If there's two things snow is good at, it's making everything look clean and white and also making lots of things look brown and dirty.
There's an old hymn that goes:
"What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. Oh! Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know, nothing but the Blood of Jesus."
I love this hymn, and I love the weight that the words of it carry, not only for me, but for humanity. I love the irony of the crimson of blood being able to wash us and cleanse us. It's ironic- just like the irony of snow being epically white, but also creating lots of brownness along the way, and just like the hymn carries a symbolic message, I believe that snow does too. Just as the crimson Blood of Christ washes away our sins and makes us white as snow, I believe the dirtiness that from the white of snow also represents something about us after we've been made white as snow in Christ. The more we're washed in the Blood, and the whiter we become, the more aware we become of our dirtiness and need of cleansing and grace. Just as white snow reveals brown dirtiness, the whiteness and pureness of Christ reveals more of our dirtiness and our need for grace and washing.
You've gotta love when nature reminds you of God's grace.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: "Oh! Precious is the flow that makes us white as snow"- and reveals our dirt.