Snowfall

¹“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18). There’s something remarkably clean about freshly fallen snow. After a few days it can start to get all grey and sludgy, but just after it falls, there’s just a purity to it. And even if a lot of the snow has started to turn black, once a new snowstorm hits and deposits another layer of fresh snow, once again, everything will be white. I don’t think it’s an accident that Isaiah compared the power of the Atonement to a covering of snow. “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8). Charity is the pure love of Christ. Therefore, it is not necessarily that any of our individual acts of charity that we perform will in any way cover up our sins, but rather if we sincerely repent, then the pure love of Christ and the cleansing and purifying power of His Atonement will fall gently down upon our souls like a fresh layer of pure snow to cover up our sins. And if we allow that newly white covering of grace to become black and dirty through another multitude of sins, then, as often as we repent, charity will cover the latest multitude in another layer of pure white snow.