I love waking up and looking out the window onto a snowy landscape. You know, the one where snow has fallen all night, but now the sun has risen and all across your front yard each crystal is reflecting the brilliance of the sun in an unbroken expanse. All is new and fresh and you just want to stand there and cherish the moment. I think one of the things that makes it so appreciated is that you know that unspoiled view cannot last. I’m not referring to the spoiling of a snowy landscape because it melts, but rather the spoiling that takes place simply because life happens.
I have my pictures out of order, but you’ll get the idea. Life happens on the snowy landscape when you traipse out to the mailbox, and there goes the unbroken landscape…footprints in the snow. Once you have messed it up, you kind of “Oh well…” and it’s easier to make that second trip, and so on and so on, until you have a real mess -like the picture above.
There’s a lot of life lesson in this analogy. There was a time when your life was as pure as the driven snow, but then you made that trip to the mailbox, so to speak. You did something that messed up the brilliance of the landscape that was your life. After that first trip, it’s a whole lot easier to make the second trip and so on. Now you’re even laying down in it and making snow angels, snow men, and igloo’s. Yea, a lot of fun was had, but gone and out of mind are the days of innocence and purity of the unspoiled landscape, unless . . .”
In scripture, God says He will take our sins and remove them from us as far as the east is from the west. He promised He would make our lives “Whiter than snow”. Even after we have made such a mess of things and think the landscape of our lives is beyond repair, it happens, the renewal of our lives.
During the recent snow storm here in KY I went to the barn to do chores. Footprints in the snow all the way down and all the way back. Spoiled for good? not so! The next morning there was no evidence of my ever passing that way. During the night the wind had blown so that all traces of my passing had been erased; just as if yesterday’s journey had never happened. And then it occurred to me that there is a lesson in that. God can make every day of my life just that new. I need not hold on to the images of a trampled life/landscape. For me that was an exciting thought and I hope for you as well. It is inevitable in this world that we are going to be putting footprints in the snow. But Christ crucified for us, was Gods’ removal of the footprints of sin on our very souls.
“Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole;
I want You forever to live in my soul;
Take down every idol, cast out every foe;
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Leaving a Legacy 