By Miriam Rossow
The snow fell white and beautiful outside. Silent and still it fell. We watched as it came down and down stacking up high on the table, covering up the flower pot and then creeping up the sliding glass door until we could not open it without a foot of snow falling in on us.
We had snuggled down with a cozy fire, warm jammies, blankets, and movies playing. We cuddled next to each other keeping warm as we watched the snow fall.
The next morning everything was cancelled. Life came to a halt. I admired the fresh fallen snow, beautiful and white with no trace of dirt. The snow was silent and still. Life was silent and still.
I admired the fresh fallen snow, beautiful and white with no trace of dirt.
Then life started again. Jobs, schools, and errands all began. I noticed as I made my way around that the snow was no longer white. The snow was no longer crisp and beautiful.
The snow I was looking at was full of dirt. It had been pushed aside and out of the way. Snow had been piled high making it sharp and rigid. Or it had been run over many times with salt added making it slushy and messy.
Snow had been piled high making it sharp and rigid.
The snow in my front yard became marked with life as my kids ventured out and made snow angels, footprints, and pictures in the snow. Life had touched the snow as it lay quiet and still on the ground moving it around and disturbing it’s peace. Leaving it marked.
Then it snowed again. Many of the marks of life were erased. The dirt was covered and the snow was quiet, peaceful, beautiful, and white again. Our life is like this cycle of renewal.
In baptism we are forgiven. We are made whiter than snow. We are washed clean and perfect in the eyes of the Lord because of Jesus.
Then life starts again. Our lives get dirty and filled with hurt, anger, disappointment, sadness. Our lives become rigid and sharp or mushy and messy as we live them.
Our lives get dirty and filled with hurt, anger, disappointment, sadness.
Then Jesus touches our lives again. The marks of hurt, anger, disappointment, sadness are erased. The brokenness is restored. In Jesus and in His forgiveness received through Him and others we are made white again.
Then Jesus touches our lives again. The marks of hurt, anger, disappointment, sadness are erased.
Throughout our life we are forgiven, we mess up and are hurt, and then by, with, and in Jesus we are forgiven and made white again.
So when the next snow falls. Watch as it covers the dirt of life. And then be renewed by the promise that Jesus has not just covered, but has erased and taken away the dirt in your life, daily!