Whiter than Snow

A beautiful winter’s day in Murrayville BC today.  Overnight the Greater Vancouver area saw around 20 cm’s of snow! Looking over this fresh blanket of brilliant white snow reminds us of some of the Bible’s 24 references to snow.

Job 38:22 says, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” Today under microscope we can appreciate something of its treasure, in its crystal structure, mostly in the form of delicate six-pointed “stars”.  The variety is endlessly varied and always intricately symmetrical and incredibly beautiful.

The snow is a treasure in other ways as well. The winter’s snowpack in the mountains is often called “white gold” because of its indispensable water storage capacity, released in the melting season each spring to provide life to teeming cities and irrigation in the desert for needed food supplies. The snow also aids in maintaining the planet’s chemical cycles by returning various elements in the nuclei of its flakes back from the ocean to the lands from which they were leached and transported by rivers to the oceans. When the snowpack becomes a glacier, it can greatly assist in the breakup of rocks to form fertile soils.

In the Scriptures, its pure white color is often used to symbolize the cleansing of a sinful heart that trusts the Lord. “Wash me,” said David, “and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,” the Lord promises those who come to Him for salvation (Isaiah 1:18).

As you enjoy a rare form of winter weather in the GVRD today – ask yourself, have I had the sin stains of my heart cleansed, am I in God’s sight “washed”? James L. Nicholson wrote a hymn lifting the expression “whiter than snow” from Psalm 51:7. The 4th verse and chorus is shared below:

Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat,
I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet,
By faith for my cleansing, I see thy blood flow—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Refrain:
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.