Enchanting Snow

Year 4-Day 10: Today, I am grateful for the enchantment of waking up to a soft, snow covered world. 

Think about it.  On the way to bed, you note the blah of the winter landscape as you let the dog out and in one last time before sleep and turn off the patio light. You wake to find that the morning brings more than a new day. It arrives with a winter wonderland.  Not a blizzard. Not deep bitter cold.  A soft, gentle snow that covers the sad, barren landscape.  It is wonder filled and wonderful. 

I am not a snow person...the cold makes me ache...but I cannot ignore the magnificence outside my window. It is simple splendor. It feels like holy ground. Pure. Virginal. Fresh from the hand of God, it creates awe. Can you feel the "holy ground"? I can.

The flocked trees shimmer.  The pristine clean landscape...at least until Harley dog wakes up and needs out.... is untouched by human or animal. It is breathtaking. Even better...when it happens on a Saturday and you don't have to be anywhere first thing in the morning.

Then, the world wakes up. That which seemed clean and pure gets tracked up, dirty and becomes quite the mess.  I find myself wishing for a "rewind" or a "pause". 

I think my days are often like fall of a fresh snow.  I wake up to a new, clean fresh day. Then, I track it up with the "muddy moments" of every day living. Yes...I mess up...at times before I even leave the house.   

Today, as I looked at the snow...a day old on the ground and looked for a word from The Word...this verse was my verse of the day, from 1 Peter 1:15-16  

"But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

We are called to holiness? Yes, we are. Still, I feel so much more like the dirty, tracked up, marked snow covered ground.  

Then, I remember the encouraging words of Isaiah 1:8-

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

His love, His blood and His grace cover me again and again...like each fresh snow falling on the barren winter landscape. It is a holy place of wonder. It is freely given, but the Master Artist must be invited. 

He not only creates...he is an amazing restoration artist, too. We love how He paints creation but forget that His best and most significant work ...was a restoration piece... crafted of wood and metal. 

The cross was and is his greatest work. It took everything he had in Him...until he declared, "It is finished." His commitment to the work never faltered. Only Christ could turn an instrument of torture and death into a place of hope and forgiveness. A symbol we often wear as a reminder of His sacrifice and the beauty of forgiveness. 

Today, I am grateful for the enchantment of waking up to a soft, snow covered world... and for His grace offered at the cross that allows me to be "as white as snow".