Reflections in the Snow

I've spent the past two days digging out from the big snow. Happily, the heavens dumped only about six inches unlike the massive snows of 2009 and 2010 when we were engulfed with about twenty inches of the white stuff. 

I remember well the 2010 storm and blogged about it at the time. My husband and I were out on the John Deere, snowplow in place, every 2-3 hours trying to keep our long driveway passable. At every round the driveway got narrower. Fortunately, the snow stopped before the width shrank to a path. Our long driveway made the clearing a Herculean task to free the car, but we succeeded. Definitely an accomplishment that we could not repeat today, fifteen years later!

Mind you, I'm not complaining. I enjoy snow (in moderation) and have many memories of rollicking with happy kids on unscheduled snow days when school was cancelled and all was right with the world.

There is something about snow that invites reflection. It comes down pure and white which has given rise to the expression, "pure as the new driven snow." It's like us at baptism, with the white garment symbolizing purity. Sadly, that doesn't last long for either the snowy landscape or our own personal habitation.  Except in pastoral landscapes stretching out in vast carpets of white, the snow turns too soon dirty, slushy, and messy. It's dragged into the house on boots leaving little puddles of wet needing to be cleaned up. 

Our own snowy spiritual world tends in the same direction, doesn't it? Our personal sins soon mess up the snowy white of our souls and inject the mess of dissension and disorder into our surroundings and among our families and friends. And that's where Confession comes in as we repent, confess, resolve to do better in the future and restore our souls to a state similar to the "new driven snow."

And the snow also invites us to become like little children once again. For children the snow offers a magical fairyland, better than an amusement park. Little white knights engage in mock snowball wars, angels appear in the snow. Snow people rise up. It's a world of joy and laughter and what a blessing when we old folks join in. We are admonished to become like little children and what could be more positively childlike than to enjoy simple, joyful pleasures like romping in the snow?

I like to think of the beautiful falling snow as God's outpouring of grace on our fallen world to remind us of his presence. Every snowflake that falls is unique and God relates to each and every one of us as His own precious child. What a wonder! It reminds me of Miranda in The Tempest as she meets the shipwrecked characters who are anything but heroic and virtuous for the most part:

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here! 
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in ’t! (V.i.)

Mankind, created in the image and likeness of God is, indeed, "beauteous." Sadly, sin sullies and hides that beauty. But it is always there even in the greatest sinners, ready to be resurrected by repentance and conversion. 

After I shovel today, if I can manage it with this creaky old body, I will lie down in the snow and make an angel while I pray to my guardian angel that I can get up again, not only literally, but figuratively. Let me never fall and stay down, Lord, but always rise and try again to do better.

O Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.