On 8 February 2007, the weather forecasters got it absolutely right — here in South Wales we woke up to a blanket of snow — 5 cm of it to be precise. The snow disrupted transport and closed many schools. This delighted many school children, but inconvenienced others.
My friends in Canada find it somewhat amusing that what is by their standards a very small amount of snow throws a large spanner in the national works here in the UK.
The winter snow of 2007 caused a lovely stillness. It dampened down the sound, and turned my mind to the God of the Bible. For in the light of the Bible, the snow reminds us of both the seasons of God and the salvation of God.
The seasons of God
We, of course, have absolutely no control over the weather, the time or the seasons of the year. But behind all these lies the hand of a sovereign God. It is he who is in control of the universe, for he is the God of both creation and providence.
In Genesis 8:22 God says, ‘While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease’. Then in Psalm 147 16-17 we read that ‘[God] gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes. he casts forth his ice like morsels; who can stand before his cold?’ All we can do, then, is submit humbly to God’s providence and accept whatever weather he sends our way.
And does this not apply to ‘the seasons of life’ as well? Does not Almighty God, in his infinite wisdom, balance the seasons of life in the lives of his children, as much as he does the seasons of nature?
He may well make us experience a cold winter of the soul — a winter of sorrow, stress, frustration or spiritual barrenness. ‘For from him and through him and to him are all things’ (Romans 11:36). The trials and traumas of this life can chill our hearts.
What can we do? In the natural realm, we adapt. We employ central heating and warm winter clothes. And in the spiritual realm we can also adapt — God enables his children to adapt and cope.
It is the knowledge and assurance of his love in Christ which warms our hearts. The Psalmist wrote: ‘When the cares of my heart are many, thy consolations cheer my soul’ (Psalm 104:19).
The only ultimate consolation we have is that ‘God is’ — he is sovereign in control, infinite in wisdom, and abundant in mercy, love and grace. He is too kind to be cruel and too wise to make mistakes. His promise avails in all seasons and circumstances: ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ (2 Corinthians 12:19). His grace keeps pace with whatever we face!
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase.
To added affliction he addeth his mercy,
To multiplied trials, his multiplied peace.
The salvation of God
Secondly, the snow also reminds us of God’s salvation. In Isaiah 1:18 God gives the following wonderful promise: ‘Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool’.
Isaiah’s designation as ‘The evangelical prophet’ is apt. Here at the beginning of his sixty-six chaptered prophecy we have a promise of salvation. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow’. The promise — with New Testament hindsight — has its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning death on the cross for sinners. Sin is a defiled state, rendering us unfit for the presence of God. Hence David’s prayer to God in Psalm 51:5 — ‘Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow’.
The good news of the gospel is that God in his mercy has provided a way of cleansing from the sin which both defiles and damns us. His merciful provision was his own Son — who lived a sinless life and died in the place of sinners, bearing the wrath of God on their behalf.
The simple but glorious statement of 1 John 1:7 is that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin’. The blood of Jesus makes sinners fit for heaven. It washes us ‘white as snow’. The inhabitants of glory, says Revelation 7:14, are those who ‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’.
The snow of February 2007 soon thawed. It came and went within forty eight hours. But praise God that his truth stands eternally — ‘The Word of the Lord abides for ever’ (1 Peter 1:25).
The God of the Bible is a sovereign God. He is in control of the seasons of nature and the seasons of our soul, and knows how to balance both for his glory. And he is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to the death of the cross. Jesus shed his precious blood so that sinners could be washed whiter than snow and saved eternally.
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood.
Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow;
There’s wonderful power in the blood
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb!
© Timothy Cross; originally published in Evangelical Times, reproduced with the kind permission of www.evangelicaltimes.org
