White as Snow

"White as Snow" is the theme for a women's retreat coming up in February where I will be the guest speaker. It's a phrase found in the Bible in Isaiah 1:18 and in Psalm 51:7 and refers to how clean God can make us when He cleanses us from sin. If you look out our window about now, it's hard to imagine how clean that could be. Around here the snow is pretty when it first falls, but it doesn't take long for it to get gray-looking and miserable.

Why, I have wondered often in the past, would God use snow for that example?

And then we visited Antarctica.

The snow was the purest white I have ever seen. So white that when the sun shone through it, it actually looked blue. Of course, that was everywhere but where the penguins were. Wherever the colonies of birds made their roost, their mess made a stark contrast with the untouched snow. Not unlike the way our lives can become corrupted and dirtied and unclean.

Coincidently as I was working on what I am going to talk about for the retreat, we spoke with several other passengers on the holiday cruise this past Christmas who had also been to Antarctica. Each time the experience was described as spiritual. Guess God was telling me what kind of example I could use. But should I take all my pictures?

[For any ladies in the area, the retreat is at the Penfield Community Church in Wellington, OH and is February 28]