Whiter Than Snow

(Just outside the back door)

Sleet pelting our old tin roof late yesterday afternoon was my cue to look out the window and see if any of the forecasted snow was falling yet. Not yet, but soon. It was actually about dark or after when the snow started really coming down thick. This morning when we awoke and looked out the window it was beautiful. So clean and white. Just the perfect amount. Enough to look pretty but not enough to make the roads impassable and cause us to be homebound for days on end!

Our church is almost an hour away from where we live and the roads near there were worse than ours so today's services were cancelled. My husband called some friends to see if their church just down the road from us was going to be having church today. They were, so we got ready and went down there. Two other couples from our home church plus our youngest son whose church had canceled today were there also.

I took a few pictures of the snowy scenery this morning knowing that I wanted to later write something with a "snowy" theme. During the worship service the Pastor asked if anyone in the audience had anything they would like to say about the snow. A lady in the back of the church quickly got to her feet. She told how she had been thirty-three years old before she had trusted in the shed blood of Christ to cleanse her from her sins. How she had lived a sinful life for so long even though she had been raised in a Christian home and had had the opportunity many times to be saved but yet just held on to her sins and wicked lifestyle. Then one September day she came to repentance and asked the Lord to save her. She related how a few months after that the Lord sent one of our fairly rare Mississippi snows. When she saw the snow there was only one thing she could think of....the verse from Isaiah 1: 18..."Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Kneeling down, she scooped up a handful of the pure white snow and thanked God that though her sins had been red like crimson, her soul was now as white as snow!

When she sat down I immediately knew that THAT was what I wanted to write about the snow! I could not have thought of anything half as touching as the testimony she gave this morning! As Christians, we should all do as she did and remember where God brought us from. No matter if the world called us a "good person" or a "wicked person" before we were saved, we were ALL as filthy rags in God's sight. And as such, we should have the same tender thankfulness when we realize that although our sins were as scarlet, we are now washed white as snow because of the precious blood of Jesus!

I had not thought of the old song "Whiter Than Snow" (by James Nicholson & William Fischer) for many years and so this afternoon I pulled out a hymnal and read it. The first verse says this: "Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole; I want You forever to live in my soul; Break down every idol, cast out every foe. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."

I'm so thankful I have been washed "whiter than snow". And I think that I will remember this lady's testimony for a very long time.

Marilyn

**********

Liesa over at "Life By George" has honored me with The Marie Antoinette award.

It is for people who are perceived to be "real" in who they are. I do hope that I can live up to this award ! Thank you Liesa! And by the way...today is Liesa's birthday so why not hop on over and visit her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday! Tell her I sent you! :)