Christmas, Easter, and Snow: What about Them?
Rev. Thomas Handrick, Sr.
Administrative Pastor of
Immanuel Lutheran Church & School
Perryville, MO
March 8, 2008
I didn't see much snow during my childhood in south Texas. In
fact, I don't recall experiencing it at all until my high school years in
Austin. However, while living in Indiana; West Berlin, Germany;
Connecticut; Georgia (yes, it actually snows there on rare occasions); north
Texas; and now Missouri I've enjoyed a lot of snow.
While driving commercial busses in Ft. Wayne, IN I sometimes had to
haul stranded airline passengers from South Bend's airport to Chicago O'Hare
on roads that had not yet been cleared of a heavy snowfall. Sally and I
have romantic memories of the snow-covered streets of West Berlin under the
dark night's sparkling stars and flickering gas street lights. My most
memorable snowfall was when my daughter exited Sally's womb on Meriden, CT's
snowiest day in February 1977. Then there was the infamous "Blizzard of
'78" in Ft. Wayne, IN that imprisoned us for a few days. I'll never forget
the snowy days in Ossian, IN, where my then very young children and I built
snow forts, sledded in the streets, and hunted the perfect Christmas tree in
the falling snow. And now I've had the thrill to experience what some have
described as the snowiest winter here in southeast Missouri for more than a
decade!
Different people have different feelings about snow. I've always
enjoyed the exciting adventure of it along with its picturesque beauty.
However, as I grow older I also become more fearful of its danger . slipping
and falling and breaking one or more bones. Ugh! But the young child in
my aging body still grows gleefully excited when it snows.
Perhaps that excitement is attached to the sentiment of Christmas
when we hear and sing, "Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow." Easter,
on the other hand, often marks the end of the snow season. However, many
people have warned me about the very real possibility of snow up through
Easter . and beyond when Easter is early as it is this year.
So, what does all this snow talk have to do with anything
spiritual? The word "snow" appears 24 times in the English Standard Version
translation of the Holy Bible. Perhaps the most meaningful snow passage is
the one that ties Christmas and Easter together: ". though your sins are
like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow . ." (Isaiah 1:18 ESV)
The sinless Son of God, whose humble birth we celebrate at
Christmas, is the holy Lamb of God, whose majestic resurrection from the
dead we celebrate at Easter after His sacrificial death on Calvary's cross.
Isaiah accurately captured our sinful-and-forgiven condition when he wrote,
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way; and the Lord has laid on him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah
53:6 ESV)
That's right! Almighty God, who is both just and merciful,
performed the gracious exchange that St. Paul captured when he wrote, "For
our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him
[Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)
God has cleansed our sin-polluted selves with the crimson blood
that Jesus shed on Calvary's cross and thereby made us white as snow. St.
Paul further explains how that reality becomes our personal possession: "Do
you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4 ESV)
Holy Baptism is the sacramental bath in which God scrubs us clean
of our sins, declares us to be new creatures . His children, and sets us
forth on a path of living the cleansed life according to His holy will that
He reveals in His Holy Word, the Bible. It's what King David repentantly
prayed for, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7 ESV)
While many of us may be longing for spring's warm snowless days,
let winter's cold snow remind us of the meaning of Christmas and Easter.
Christ was born! Christ suffered and died! Christ rose from the dead! His
victory over sin, death, and the devil secures forgiveness of sins,
salvation, and eternal life in heaven for all who trust Him alone with
Spirit-given faith.
"Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"
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