“Lord, I thank thee that Michigan winters are not always like this past week.”

This week’s winter storm is definitely the worst one that I’ve ever experienced in the thirteen years that I’ve lived in Michigan. And winter is not yet over; more snow is predicted to come. Consequently, many feel tired of the snow. Many (including myself) cannot wait for the spring. But before the snow melts, let me share some of my reflections on snow.

First, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to live in a place where it snows. When I was in the Philippines, Mexico, and Australia, I met people who have never seen snow in their lifetime, and who want to witness a snowfall. Of course there are countless of other peoples around the globe who would love to see snow, too. Thus, if you live in an area where it snows, thank the Lord for that privilege. Others can only dream of a white Christmas, while you get to experience and enjoy it.

Second, having seen snow with my own eyes, Bible verses that speak of snow become more meaningful to me. For instance, now I can better understand the point that God makes in Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

Third, snow can serve as a reminder to me of how God has forgiven me in Christ, making me even “whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). Imagine, God has made me whiter than snow! My fellow Christian, look around at all the snow and think of how God has cleansed you from all your sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. As the hymn writer Ro­bert Low­ry (1826–1899) remarks in his well-known hymn “Nothing but the Blood”:

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Fourth, as a hymn lover, snow reminds me of some of the hymns that mention snow. Then as I recall these hymns, I sometimes sing them silently in my heart or loudly with my mouth. Snow therefore becomes a means by which God directs my attention to the gospel. Right now as I look at the snow outside, the song that comes into my mind is “There Is Power in the Blood” by Lewis E. Jones (1865–1936):

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow.
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

I confess the older I get, the lesser I appreciate snow. And I admit many times I complain and say, “Snow again! When will it stop snowing? I’m tired of the snow.” Yet, with God’s help I try to discipline my mind to think of how I can use the presence of snow for my spiritual benefit.

Finally, I understand we’ve had a lot of snow. And it’s so easy to have a murmuring spirit toward this cold weather. Someone told a story about a certain minister who “was known for his uplifting prayers in the pulpit. He always found something for which to be grateful. One Sunday morning the weather was so gloomy that one church member thought to himself, ‘Certainly the preacher won’t think of anything for which to thank God on a wretched day like this.’ Much to his surprise, however, [the minister] began by praying, ‘We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.’”

This is my thirteenth winter since I came to Michigan. And as I’ve already noted earlier, this week’s storm is the worst one that I’ve ever seen. But learning from this preacher, in the midst of this cold storm I can still find a reason to thank God. I can say, “Lord, I thank thee that Michigan winters are not always like this past week.”

How is our attitude toward the weather? When it is cold we complain, when it is hot we do the same. Instead of complaining, why don’t we start counting all our blessings in Christ and name them one by one, that we may be overwhelmed by God’s goodness and burst into praise.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.