Whiter Than Snow
Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer
During a recent snowstorm my church chat group was sharing photos. Soon we started developing metaphors from these images for the Christian life. My sister posted the picture above with the challenge to relate it to a biblical truth. My response was that Christ’s righteousness covers even the weeds in our lives. The verse I thought of was Psalm 51:7:
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
In this Psalm King David cries out to the Lord for deliverance after his sin with Bathsheba. He recognized the thicket of weeds and brambles his life had become because of his sin. And he knew he was not going to make the changes he needed to make on his own. He needed God to cleanse him and make him “whiter than snow.” The weeds were still there. His sin cost him in many ways, but they were covered with righteousness in the Lord’s response to his repentance.
Equally appropriate would be Isaiah 1:16-18 where the prophet exhorts Israel to repent of her evil ways (“make yourselves clean”) so the LORD could make them “as white as snow”:
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
From the New Testament we have the final answer to our weed problem. John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, answers the question of who would be the one to bring cleansing for God’s people? He says it is Messiah Jesus:
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
We all have weeds in our lives. We have encouraged some to grow rather than root them out. Others have been planted by the enemy (Matt. 13:24-33). Regardless of the source, they continue to plague us, if only in memory, no matter how fervently we have repented their existence. We need the Lord’s righteousness to cover them, to make us “whiter than snow.”
Do you recall the hymn “Whiter Than Snow” by James L Nicholson? I remember singing it as a child. Sometimes we need to feel the wonder and comfort of eternal truths in music. I liked this rendition by the Fountainview Acadamy Orchestra and Singers performed on a beach in Hawaii. Click here to go to the performance on Youtube and refresh your heart and mind with its promises.
(Photo credit: Sandra Edster)
