Snow day(s)!

If you follow either the news, or Twitter, you know there’s been quite a bit of snowfall in the past few weeks here in Oklahoma, up through Chicago, and beyond. Students of all ages rejoice as school was cancelled for the first day… the second day… the third day… and now the fourth is pending. (fingers crossed!) A friend of mine has dubbed it “snowpocalypse.” My church has been on the news for their hilarious facebook group:  Foundations Church Snow Angel Challenge . With school cancelled, and nowhere to go, I think the entire city (with the exception of my church) has been sitting on the couch, watching movies and eating. (I know I have!)

The first snow of the winter happened a few weeks ago, and school was also shut down then, also. I’ve seen snow before, but I’ve never lived anywhere that gets more than an inch or two at a time. (with the exception of the Dallas “snowpocalypse” of 2010) So when that first snow hit, the words of a hymn came to my mind:

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.

I’ve sung it a million times, and sure, I’ve pictured snow while singing it. But at that first snow, I finally understood what it meant. The night before, everything was dirty, dead, and bare from the winter cold. In the morning, everything was glistening, blindingly white. Yesterday I ventured outside for a few hours to help clear off our driveway, and the white covering the neighborhood was excruciatingly white. (probably should have worn sunglasses- my eyes hurt the rest of the day!)

And that, my friends, is the kind of forgiveness of sins that Jesus offers. He’ll make you blindingly, excruciatingly white, free from sin. If you’ve surrendered your life to Him, He’s already done it. No longer are we called sinners, but forgiven. No longer are we stained from the blood on our hands, but we are made white as snow (and that’s really white, I’ve discovered!). So take a minute of your snow day (or sunny day, if you’re in SoCal or Florida!) and thank Jesus for His grace that draws us to recognize the beauty of forgiveness.