SOUTHSIDE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Snow in the Forcast, Sunday, 19 November 2000

Dec 02, 2000

Leland R. Ping

Throughout the next three or four months, the word "snow" will become all too familiar as the cold of winter approaches. With much of Indiana seeing its first significant snow in the forecast, it is fitting to understand how important snow is in the spiritual sense.
Throughout the Bible, the word snow is used in an attempt to illustrate the power of God. When Moses stood before God and the bush burning with fire, God instructed to Moses to put his hand into his bosom and when Moses did, "his hand was leprous, like snow" (Exodus 4:6). Indeed, God's power was made manifest in the fact that Moses' hand was not slightly diseased, but so much so that it was like snow. Perhaps those who profess to have the God-given power to heal and perform miracles should reread this account and understand that God's power heals fully, not just in part.
The inspired men of God who wrote the Bible also used snow to illustrate purity. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, Mark states that, "His [Jesus'] clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them" (Mark 9:3). And, after Jesus arose from the grave, the angel that appeared to the two Marys had clothing "as white as snow" (Matthew 28:3).
The same purity that was found in Jesus and the angel needs to be found in us. It is fitting, then, that the Bible describes the human without sin as whiter than snow. David, after he had committed fornication with Bathsheba and had had her husband killed, wrote, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7). And, the prophet Isaiah quotes the Lord as saying, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18).
We need to try and understand and then teach others about both the power of God as illustrated by snow and how such power can work in the lives of each of us. Paul states that we "have all sinned" (Romans 3:23). If this is the case, then we all need the to have our sins, even as scarlet, washed away so that we can be as white as snow.