Let it snow, snow, snow!

For the past almost 2 weeks, it has snowed practically every day. Indeed, there are some real blessings to the snow here. The potholes in the roads are filled in, making the drive much smoother (although, ironically, it is the ice and winter weather which creates the potholes in the first place). Also, as the British guy who works at my language school told me, the snow covers all of the ugliness of Russia, making everything look much prettier.

All of this snow has made me think about Psalm 51, where King David writes, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” This famous psalm of his, where he is seeking forgiveness from the Lord, has come to my mind several times as I have been walking around Tver. The funny thing about snow is that it is pure white, just like David wrote—but not for long, especially in the city. It is amazing how quickly the roads, sidewalks, and areas of traffic become brown, dirty, slushy snow. It reminded me of our human existence—while God does indeed come to us and forgive us, we quickly muddy up our lives with sin.

But, here is the cool thing that I have noticed over the last two weeks of snowing, the largest snowfalls occur at night—every morning, when I walk to school, the previously ugly, dirty streets are once again clean, white, pure. So it is with us, as God comes to us every time we are dirty, and once again forgives us, making us white again. What a great metaphor! So, in the words of the crooner Bing Crosby, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”