Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

I know, I know, you are all humming or singing the song now. I’m sorry……..No I’m not! I’m grinning. Why, you ask? Because, I LOVE SNOW! With all of the talk about whether or not we will see snow this weekend, I had to write this. I love watching it snow, I love snow-cream, I love taking pictures in the snow. I love everything about snow. I love that no two snowflakes are the same. I love that everything is blanketed in a coat so pristine that it is as if everything were fresh and new. If you’ve never seen or heard of Snowflake Bentley, I encourage you to read about his breathtaking discovery on how to photograph snowflakes. He was a master way ahead of his time.

However, there are several other reasons I love snow. First, I have always seen a snowfall as a gift from God and as a way of stopping time. Not so much in recent years, but growing up and in early adulthood, it was a play day. No errands to run, no fields to work, no business were open, school would close, so we got a play day. It was as if God was giving us all permission to take a day off. Time stopped. We got to do things we never took time to do, like build a snowman, if there was enough snow, snowball fights, play board games in front of the fire, drink hot chocolate, and eat whatever soup or chili Mom threw together with a grilled cheese sandwich of course. Those kinds of days didn’t come often so they were treasured even more. The second reason I love snow is it puts all of us on the same playing field. It didn’t matter how rich or poor, young or old, everything looked and felt new. It works much like Christmas lights do. You can take any rundown or less than beautiful scene and put some lights or snow or both on it and you have something beautiful again. It is exactly the same as Jesus taking away our sins and making us as white as snow. Psalm 51:7 – Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. (The word “snow” is used at least 24 times in the Bible, ESV.)

For those of you who don’t care for snow or winter, this might change your mind just a little. When my children we little, we always traveled to the mountains of NC to my grandparent’s house at Christmas. We would literally go over the rivers and through the woods to get to Grandma’s house every year on Christmas Day, till she passed away at age 99. It was usually about a 200-mile trek, one way. One Christmas in particular, it had been a bit on the warm side but my youngest child who was about 4 I think, kept saying it was going to snow. Well, when you go to the mountains on Christmas day what do you expect? Snow! Anyway, in my best motherly voice, I tried to tell him that the weatherman was not calling for snow and the weather was really too warm for snow. His response was, “Mama, I asked God to let it snow. I prayed for it to snow.” Well how in the heck can you argue with that? How was I going to explain to him why God didn’t send snow? Well, let me tell you, God showed me a thing or two. That night, as was always the custom, we had a great big meal around Grandma’s dining room table. After some minimal cleanup, the kids were begging to open the mountain of gifts waiting. We were all so wrapped up in our excitement that no one saw what was happening outside. Yep, you guessed it. It was quietly snowing. As family that lived close by was getting ready to leave, we opened the front door and the hollering started. It was snowing! No one expected it except my child. He turned around and looked me straight in the face and said, “See I told you it was going to snow. I asked God.” Well I had been firmly schooled in the faith of a child. But, this is not then of the story. The ground was already white and we all piled out into the front yard to play, no coats, no gloves, just us and the snow. Well there might have been a few coats. Soon though, the cold drove us back inside and we stood and watched it snow from the porchlight shining on the front yard. My cousin, who only lived a mile away called us when she got home. She said, “You’re not going to believe this, there is no snow at my house”. She called her mom, my aunt, who lived in the opposite direction and she told her the snow stopped at the river, less than a mile away. Once again God schooled us all. He answered a child’s prayer by making it snow on top of a single hill in the middle of nowhere North Carolina. I didn’t have to explain anything. God explained it all, the faith of a child, just asking and receiving, performing a miracle when science said it wouldn’t happen. So even today, I LOVE SNOW for no other reason than to be reminded that God is in everything, even the small things and nothing is unimportant to Him.

Check out Matthew 7:7-8, Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16-17 about having the faith of a child. May we all be like children when we enter the Kingdom of God. And yes, I’m praying for a snow-day. I’ll put the soup on!