Lessons from the Snow

I feel like having snow in Texas is like finding a four-leaf clover - enjoy it, celebrate it, and don't expect it to happen again for a very long time! For followers of God, we're encouraged to be attentive to what God says and what God does. God speaks most clearly and directly through the special revelation of His Word, but He also speaks through the natural revelation of this created universe we live in. I love observing God's creation, deducing lessons of His heart by investigating the clues and hints evident in the things He made.

Take a weather event like snow in Texas for instance!

This morning I put on my proverbial Sherlock Holmes sleuth hat and whipped out the old magnifying glass to see what I could discover about God in this strange white fluff falling from the sky, lighting on the Gulf of Mexico. (Or is it the Gulf of America?) 

Snow in Texas is rare, and there are times in the heat of summer where snow sounds impossible. But God is a miracle working God. He can make dead bones lives again. He can make streams in the desert. Our God can save that family member you might be tempted to think will never give God a chance. As the old song says, "God can make a way when there seems to be no way."

"For with God nothing shall be impossible." - Luke 1:37

As I looked out over the snow this morning, I was reading in Exodus about the plagues God used to bring Pharaoh to his knees. Water to blood, frogs, flies, lice, hail, fire, locusts!!! God can make it sunny or snowy. He can make rain to flood the earth and He can rain fire and brimstone from heaven. The snow reminds me that we are not in control. The weather people with all their technology are still just commentators of what God is doing. They can't move a hurricane an inch to the left or to the right. We are not in control, and that's a good thing.

"For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength." - Job 37:6

I remember when I was a little boy one of my teachers asked, "What color is sin?" Well, I'd never thought about that before, but immediately I had my answer. Sin is black, of course! Black like darkness! The teacher smiled, knowing they had duped us, and showed us Isaiah's words...

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." - Isaiah 1:18

Sin is a red stain on a white garment. You can't hide that!

Another time, when I was boy, my family was asked to sing for a church. We did that a lot. Before the service we went out to eat and my brother, who was probably six years old, spilled something on his pants. We didn't have time to change or clean his pants, so my Mom got creative. When we stood on the stage to sing, she found an artificial plant and placed it in front of my brother to cover the stain.

Well, the stain of sin is far too obvious for us to cover. Adam and Eve tried to cover it, but that effort was ridiculously futile.

The snow reminds me that no matter how bad the red stain of sin is in a life, the blood of Jesus can cleanse the stain and make us white like snow. 

So...

Enjoy the snow while it's here! Let it speak to you about God. And you'd better listen fast, because it'll probably melt away in a couple hours!

- Pastor Keith