Dreaming of a White Christmas

Snow.
One of my favorite things in the whole world.
Clean.
Cold.
Quiet.

Free of all the things I can't stand in the world
like heat
or sand
or noise.

Memories from childhood of sledding
and snowballs
and opening my bedroom dormer window and climbing out on the roof with my dad to watch as it fell.
So quiet, it makes its own music.

So beautiful, it is its own art.

No, there is nothing like snow.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow." (Isaiah 1:18)

That is what the Incarnation set in motion.

Clean.

It gave us hope that the stain of our sin will be cleansed

and that we will one day stand in the presence of our perfectly clean God.

Cold.

It rescued us from the flames of Hell that were licking at our feet and beckoning us to our own destruction.

Quiet.

It silenced the noise of our flesh that tries to interfere with the voice of our Father.

There's just something about snow.
It is clean and cold and quiet whether it lies in the peaceful valley or on the rugged mountain. The constance of the properties of snow just stuns me into awe at my Creator and makes me fall to my knees in worship of my Redeemer.

We still do battle with the heat and the sand and the noise.

But it's temporary.

What the Incarnation set in motion

and what the Resurrection permanently secured

will one day, once and for all,

make a tangible reality.

Until then, I remember the clean, cold, quiet snow of my childhood,

and I dream of the clean, cold, quiet snow to come.

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours.

May all your Christmases be white.