After everything that came down this weekend, I think many of us are still celebrating another snow day today. At the house we measured about 14-15" of snow that we got overall. That's a lot of snow!! So it's no wonder if anyone is still not able to be out doing the things that they want to do right now.
And you know, with all of that snow, there's going to come some unpleasant parts of it...like yellow snow. There's always going to be that one dog, squirrel, pet manatee, whatever, that is going to take care of business in that nice white snow.
But, did you know? There isn't any mention of yellow snow in the Bible? Not a bit. I know that seems like a pretty random bit of trivia to know, and it is. But there is a good reason for it. It's not just that there isn't any yellow snow in the Bible, but there is no dirty snow at all in scripture. That's an important point.
Some might ask if there was any mention of snow at all in scripture. And there is. I'm not making up irrelevant facts so that I can talk about yellow snow in a blog post (although I still am a 12 year old boy at times). We do have quite a few mentions of snow in scripture. That would seem kind of odd since the Middle East and Israel aren't exactly known for being destinations for snow. It would be more likely that snow birds would head down that direction. They don't get a lot of it. But the Bible does talk about it.
For me, what's important is that way that it gets used. As an example, take this verse in Isaiah 1
This is a great description of what see in scripture. Snow becomes used as a sign of purity and having been cleansed. It's not necessarily that we are talking about something that is clean, but it gets used in descriptions of what we look like when we have been cleansed.
Here's the thing. Lets take Isaiah 1 as an example. The prophet Isaiah has been called on to do an important work. He is supposed to bring the people of Israel back to true faith in God. One of the very first things that gets mentioned isn't what they've been doing wrong. Rather its about what they've been doing without any meaning or purpose.
God is calling out the people because they are offering sacrifices and offerings that don't have any purpose to them anymore, and God is tired of it! They're missing out on what's important. They are doing things because they think they are supposed to be doing things, and because of it they are losing their way. They've also stopped doing the things that are important.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God is telling them what he thinks is important, but they've settled on doing what is easy and doesn't have any meaning attached to it anymore. This is the point when they are getting in trouble, but it doesn't have to stay that way. This is the important piece about why we see snow talked about in scripture.
Look back at verse 18. This is the moment of hope. God is telling them that their sins have marked them, and changed them, and made them worse. That's the importance of the color scarlet, there is hope that they don't have to stay there. They can be turned as white as snow! They can be cleansed from that and made whole, pure, and clean. This is always that hope that God gives. God never condemns without also giving a solution that is accessible to all people.
Is Isaiah, God is doing this through the prophet. For us, God does this through the person of Jesus Christ. We don't have to be forever marked by the things that have happened and what we have done. We can find a new path going forward and find hope for the future because God has given us a path to do it in.
I realize, that at this point, the snow at your house probably doesn't look like this. It's melted some, its been shoveled or plowed, and there is probably some dirt that has settled on things. But, the next time it snows (which could be next week) remember what it is a sign of. It's a sign that we can always have hope for the future and we can find that place to be as pure and clean as the snow that comes down to the earth.
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