Whiter Than Snow

What a beautiful week, with the snow all around, glistening white. Just makes you smile, and shiver...., and smile. The fluffy white stuff is the source of so much joy (well at least for those of us in the mid-south who don't live with it each and everyday). Even if you're just a window watcher of snowy-land activities you have to admit it is gorgeous.

Ever thought of this: What is that thing in side of us that triggers our brain to say this is beautiful and this is not? Snow is pretty. Mud is ugly. Mountains are awesome. Desserts are... not so much. Where does that come from? I guess God had a reason for us to recognize the wonderful. He created us in such a way as to appreciate beauty and stop and stare. He put that thing right inside of us for a reason.

As I played in it this week I thought of this verse in Isaiah: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." God has covered our hearts with the snowy white forgiveness which comes through Christ. God looks down at our little piece of Earth all covered in white and smiles a smile himself, for it is for His own pleasure that He sent His son to die for our sins. He wanted to forgive us our sins and make a way for us to know him, to love him, to be with him forever. And that forever starts right now. Right now God's mercy has shown us ultimate love; and now He is mine and I am His. Why, oh why do we wish to please Him so? Because he first loved us, that's why. Why do we want to labor for the Kingdom? Because His labor of love spilled the blood of his very own son. The scarlet sins are covered now, with the crystal white, and with the glory of God. 

I finished this post the other day with the statement: "building our relationship with God is the most important corporate activity we can ever engage in." Why is this so true? It is true because of where God began, Himself on a cross. That blood was for me. And now I am for Him. What began as a single act of sacrifice for me catapults me into a life-time of service for Him. Once in the Body I see the blood still. I see my own sins buried beneath the white snow. And I love, love, love him. Every turn we make in the Church, we make as forgiven sinners, now co-laborers for Christ. Knowing my our worth to Him, having a daily communion with the Father of a new white-covered heart, makes the corporate life in the Church that much sweeter. It also makes the powerful life of the Church that much more powerful. This is precisely why, "He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a special people, eager to do good works" - Titus 2:14. Our knowledge, and more importantly our full acceptance, of being cleansed by the blood of Christ makes us eager. It's just inevitable. Whiter than snow and ready to work.

God does have a reason for us to recognize the wonderful. He created us in such a way as to appreciate beauty and stop and stare. And there is no greater beauty in all the world than that of Christ's blood washing all our sins away and making us whiter than snow. What a glorious Church!

Let that snow fall! 
And let us run and play and love each other in God, our Father.