Like New-Fallen Snow

Some people move away from Minnesota because they don't care for our winter weather, but I really enjoy it. I love watching the snow fall whether it is gently floating to the ground or swirling around during a blizzard. And I love looking out the window to see the ground covered with white, glistening snow So clean, so pure, so beautiful!

Snow is more than just pretty to me, though. It is also a reminder of how God cleanses our lives when we trust His Son to be our Saviour. Isaiah 1:18 says, "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." Because of our sin, our lives are unclean and soiled. "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

When we confess our sinful state and ask Him to save us, He makes our lives pure and clean. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5:8-10)

When a person accepts Jesus' finished work on the cross as full payment of the penalty for their sin, they take on Christ's righteousness. This means that all past, present, and future sins are forgiven. In eternity, those of us who are saved will not be judged for our sins because we have been "justified by His blood." Yet in the meanwhile, none of us are sinless because we still have our sinful nature. When we give in to temptation, we choose wrong thoughts, words, and deeds. So, on this side of heaven, we keep our relationship with our Lord pure by following his instructions in I John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Pure and clean like new-fallen snow.