Let it Snow!

This was the best Christmas ever!  And if the family, fellowship, gifts, food, and fun wasn’t enough God blessed us with a measurable snowfall all day Sunday.  The Barnes’ estate looked beautiful dressed in a fresh blanket of snow white. Of course, we took all the pictures…Amanda, I, my nephew and niece, their sweet babies…and we can’t forget Cooper, our dog. This morning I took Cooper for his morning walk and we took a different route. We walked through the snow back in the woods. The woods, with it’s carpet of white, lumps of snow hanging to all the branches overhead, and the sprinkle of snow that falls from the heavens as the wind blows is a perfect picture only our Creator can paint.
As we walked peacefully, engulfed in white I couldn’t help but be reminded again about the season we are celebrating. An innocence baby being born eventually shedding his blood for us so that we can become as white as snow…”Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Isaiah 1:15. There is a divine peace that comes with the landscape being draped in white. It is as if all of nature stands still. Everything as far as the eye can see is clean, bright, and untouched. There is a pureness, an innocence that is painted with a big brush dipped in white.
This is how we become in baptism. Because of the sacrifice of our Lord, are sins are wiped clean. Our hearts become that landscape that is bathed in white. We are wiped clean, fresh, pure, and innocent. And with that there in a scripture that tells us that he provides us a “storehouse of the snow”, God used hail to help Joshua and the Israelites win a battle (see Joshua 10:11). God has reserved the storehouses of snow and hail for us in times of trouble. “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?” Job 38:22. God has control of all the forces of nature and uses them for the good of his people. Could it be that he used this blanket of snow to give everyone just one more day of peace…one more day to reflect on the true meaning of this holiday…to show his power and majesty yet again?  Could it be, at least here in the south, the Lord was giving us one more blessing of joy…”icing on the cake”?  
Well. for me, the snow brought me joy, peace, thankfulness and a lap full of memories with my nephew and his family. For me, more “icing on the cake” of this holiday season…heaps of blessings to remind me the breathe and depth of the love my Savior has for me. Freedom from sin, being washed as white as snow and a storehouse of snow in times of trouble…redemption, peace, protection, and love...what more do we need!?
“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ”Fall on the earth,” so that all men he has made may know his work, he stops every man from his labor. Job 37:5-7

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Promises in the New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I have started on my list.(not necessarily in this order)...lose some weight, eat better, pray more, spend more time with family, save some money, call my big sister more often, be more patient, get more rest, only say postive things... Most of us during the new year make a list, either on paper or mentally, of all the things we want to do differently in the coming year. There is something about a starting a new year...it is like the slate is wiped clean and it gives us renewed hope for a better year ahead. We make all kinds of well meaning promises but if you are like me, those promises don't last too long! I try hard, I really do. Little by little I break those well meaning promises. Life seems to get busy and most of the things I promised myself I would change go by the wayside. Do you find the same thing happening to you? As I was thinking about the new year and making some promises to myself, I got to thinking about the promises that don't get broken ye
Read more

She clothes herself in STRENGTH!

Image
I found this one special piece of paper tucked in among  some photographs in a box my mama kept. Let me read to you the first part... "Taipei (Taiwan) Oct. 6 It is almost midnite and I just got home. Chuck's (my father) in Kaohsiung and the kiddies are in bed asleep. We're in condition '3' of typhoon Carla and it has been storming since about 4:00 this morning. " It then continues to explain that on this night she was attending a baby shower at a friend's home. She explains that their friends Dean and Gayla arrived and she was happy to see them because mama and another lady were alone from Tien Mow (the city we lived in). " And we thank God again, because on the way home we got on the Shelin Bridge and discovered the T.A.S. (Taipei American School) corner was flooded and we couldn't get home. Dean led the way and we started back up the mountain and home by way of Peitow Chen. There was water over the road, a few trees down and a slide, but
Read more

The Real You

We all like a certain amount of control in our lives. Some of us like more control than others. That control or the appearance of having control also helps us give to others the appearance that everything in our lives is under control. Many of you have probably seen the movie "Monster In-Law" with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez. This movie, to me, is so funny I laugh through the whole thing even though I have seen it half a dozen times or so. Even thinking about it makes me laugh. In short, Jane Fonda is a wealthy, famous mother of a grown son. Her son is her everything and he is a good son to her. But, she is a very controlling mother and doesn't want to let go of him. He has fallen in love with Jennifer Lopez, a very sweet, innocent, beautiful young lady, who, of course, is not good enough for Jane Fonda's son. The son brings Jennifer home to met his mother and while they are there having tea asks Jennifer to marry him. This sends Jane Fonda into a tail-spin and you
Read more