Hello Snow

Louisiana’s Gulf Coast is predicted to get a historical amount of snow this coming week.

Snow is not the normal winter forecast. It’s a rare event to begin with … usually just a light dusting that doesn’t even stick. If it does stay around for a few hours, it’s usually not much to talk about. Although we do more than just talk about such events. We truly shut down and empty the grocery stores in anticipation of this half-day weather phenomenon.

And now the weathermen are saying this week we will see historic amounts. Up to 10 inches in some locations. Most of the area will see 2-4 inches. Not only that, but this time the snow is supposed to stay around for 48 hours or more!

We are still 3 days away from our snow event, but today my husband sent me to the store to buy supplies for gumbo. He says there is no use having snow without a pot of gumbo on the stove. Apparently, everyone in Cajun Country is planing the same exact menu for our Louisiana Sneaux Days because when I got to the store the sausage was almost gone and the only chicken broth available was the store brand variety.

All day I’ve been thinking about the upcoming snow …

I’m excited! It’s so rare around here that I’m as giddy as a young child at Christmas. I’ve got my pajama pants picked out and my books stacked up. I’m ready to light our gas logs, put the gumbo on to simmer, and enjoy the beautiful snow!

And as I thought about the upcoming snow, I thought about some past snows when I was a child.

There was the big snow of 1978. That winter, I was 5 years old, but I can vividly remember so many details about that winter storm. We lost power in our tiny north Louisiana town, and because our house didn’t have a fireplace, my family went to stay with my grandparents. My aunts and uncles, most of whom were college-age, were all home, so it felt like one big party. We all stayed together in the living room of the house where the fireplace was located. I think we slept on blankets on the floor and on the couches. It was cold!

I can remember looked out the windows and seeing the enormous icicles hanging off the eves. My Uncle Ken went out to break one off for me. He brought it inside for me, and I held it in my mittened hands and licked it like a popsicle. One afternoon we went sledding down the big hill in my grandparents backyard. We didn’t have real sleds so we sat on cardboard boxes. I remember coming in from playing outside with my aunts and uncles, my face was red and my hands were stinging from the cold. I couldn’t feel my toes anymore! After my mom changed me out of the wet, cold clothes, my great-grandmother wrapped me in a quilt and rocked me by the fireplace. I fell asleep listening to my grandmother singing songs in the kitchen.

A few years later, we had another ice storm. By then our family had a fireplace in our home. Mr. Joe, our neighbor who lived across the street, built us a wooden sled. My brother and sister and I had to pull each other around our flat yard, but we had fun playing in the snow. Later, we used the sled to pull gallons of water over to Mrs. Owens because her pipes were frozen. One afternoon, my dad took us over to a nearby pond that had frozen over. We were able to walk a little way out on it. My brother went out a good ways from the shore, but I remember feeling scared I might break through the ice and fall into the freezing water. But my daddy promised me he wouldn’t allow me to walk on the frozen pond if there was a chance I’d fall through. I’ll never forget coming back home and my mother had made us the most delicious BLT’s with tomato soup. It was warm and filling and perfect for a cold day … one of those meals I’ll never forget.

And then I remember one Sunday morning waking up to falling snow. I was married, but Joel hadn’t been born yet, so it was probably 1997 or 1998. I woke up my husband, expecting him to feel as excited as me about the snow. He wasn’t. He pulled the covers over his head and rolled over.

At first, I felt disappointed and sad, but then I decided I would just enjoy watching the snow. I pulled a big comfy chair up to the French doors and sat there with a big cup of hot chocolate, watching the snow fall and thinking about the wonders of God’s creation.

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?

Job 38:22

Some of my social media friends aren’t happy about the snowy predictions. They are grumbling about being stuck at home or how they think it is better to be hot than cold. A few have even said the weatherman will be wrong and we won’t see nearly the snow he has predicted. (Personally, I really don’t care how much we get, I just want to see those flakes drifting down and see the white piling up on all the surfaces around our yard.)

My dad used to tell me I didn’t have to like the weather. I just had to live in it.

It’s the truth. God made the hot days and the cold days. He made the rain, the sleet, and the snow. It’s all part of His creation. And like it or not, as long as I live on this earth, I must deal with whatever the weather happens to be. I’m not in charge of the wind or the rain … or the snow.

Back to snow …

I love snow for many reasons, but one of the best is because it reminds me of a God truth. Snow reminds me of who God is … and while God is Creator of the snow, He is also my Savior and Redeemer. Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

And that’s an important truth to remember.

God’s holiness cannot be in the presence of my sins. But I cannot take my sins away. I am not able to do enough good things or make enough sacrifices to pay that debt. And yet God made a way for me … and for anyone else who is willing to submit to His authority. He provided the perfect sacrifice to pay for sins. The blood of Jesus on the cross is all that is needed to remove the guilt stain of my sin.

There’s an old hymn we used to sing in my Baptist church back in north Louisiana …

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul,
Break down every idol, cast out every foe;
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Refrain:
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

When the snow comes this week, I’m going to think about that hymn and sing it in my heart and be ever so grateful that God, who created snow, also saved my soul.