White as Snow

If I had a dollar for each time I've uttered the words, "I am so done with winter this year," over the last month or so, suffice it to say that I could retire in quite comfortable fashion. Both this winter and the winter of 2009 brought to Kansas City way more snow than I wanted. And this morning when I arose? In the middle of March? Right after the institution of Daylight Saving Time? Yep, it was snowing like crazy, and it was 29 degrees.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning ... yes, another one ... and I was grumpy from the time my feet hit the floor when I woke up. A relatively sleepless night plus achy muscles plus snow plus the doctor plus needles, and by the time I got to my car to head to work, I was ready to turn around and go home, climb back into bed, pull the covers over my head and stay there until, oh, mid July or so.

As I waited for the traffic light to change as I left the doctor's office, however, something to my right caught my attention and shifted my focus. There was a bird ... one solitary black bird ... sitting in the middle of all that snow. Now those of you who read this blog regularly may recall that I wrote several blogs a while back about birds and geese and owls. God taught me some deep and lasting lessons last summer through His feathered creations, and as I watched the lone little bird this morning pecking in the snow, I realized that He was speaking to me once again.

The contrast of the blackness of the bird against the white of the snow made me immediately think of the lyrics to an old hymn ... "Jesus Paid it All." As I continued to stare at the bird while ignoring the changing traffic signal before me, I couldn't help but think how much life is like the bird and the snow. Instead of appreciating the blanket of God's forgiveness ... the whiteness and purity of the sacrifice of His only Son ... so many times I see the black spot of my sin, the dark place in my heart. Driving to work with tears coursing down my cheeks, my prayer became the words to the hymn ...

"I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed is small.
Child of weakness, watch and pray; find in Me thine all in all.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find, thy power and thine alone;
Can change the leper's spots, and heal the heart of stone.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow."