Last week, our home (along with all of south Alabama and the Gulf coast) was transformed into a frozen, winter wonderland. Sincere apologies to those still bitter that the snowstorm didn’t visit your neighborhood as heavily as it did ours. The views from my window were breathtaking as we watched millions of snowflakes fall from the sky for a solid six hours. We knew this amount of snowfall would disrupt our plans for the next few days, but we didn’t care. We loved it. My sons played in it for hours. My family walked our neighborhood streets, took pictures of the landscape, threw snowballs, and marveled at the beauty of God’s creation.
Have you ever wondered how a single snowflake is formed? You might not realize it, but every snowflake begins as a single speck of dust. Frozen water droplets adhere to dust particles in a cloud. The droplets then crystalize, and additional droplets repeatedly collect onto the formation until the weight causes it to fall to the earth. Being an Alabama boy my whole life, snowfall still captivates me the same way it does my children.
As I marvel at the snowflakes, I’m reminded of God’s love for you and me. From a distance, all snowflakes look identical. But when magnified, we learn that every single flake is unique unto itself, yet all have beauty. Each flake has its own story of formation, its own beginning. Each flake travels a different journey from the cloud to the ground. By the time we see the snowflake, all we see is a pure white object, driven by the wind. It began as dirt, but it was cleansed and repurposed displaying beauty to those who get to experience it. I’m reminded of the words of Isaiah, the prophet:
“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.” Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)
God takes our dirty hearts and cleanses them by His grace. Each of us, unique in our own backgrounds, can be transformed by Christ into a new creation. And like snowflakes, when we remain isolated, we accomplish very little. But when united by His grace and driven by the wind of His Spirit, we become a force so powerful the world is forced to take notice and prepare for the impact we bring.
We, who began as dirt and have been transformed into snow, are sent by the LORD to spread His beauty across the dirt of this earth. My prayer is that we allow God’s Spirit to empower our every action so we can share His love, His Kingdom call, to everyone we meet. When we submit to His will, we can rightly say we are as pure as the driven snow.