One of the special highlights of wintertime is the beauty of a snowy day. Snow has captured the heart and love of mankind since ancient days. In the Book of Job, one of the earliest books of the Bible, the Lord asked Job, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” (Job 38:22).
Have you ever considered the treasures of the snow applied to your marriage? It is not without accident that a traditional bridal dress is made of fabric that is as white as snow. Every snowfall should remind us to consider afresh the treasures of the snow and how we can best reflect the light of the Lord Jesus in the purity and radiance of our marriage.
The treasure of design
According to Psalm 147:16, our Lord “giveth snow like wool.” Just as a fluffy blanket is composed of individual fibers of wool, the individual hairs of a sheep that are all counted and known to God, so also a blanket of snow covering the winter landscape is composed of billions upon billions of individual snowflakes. Each snowflake is a wonder of design and perfection. Each one is built upon the same six-sided pattern, yet each one is uniquely formed.
So it is with a marriage. Your marriage is uniquely designed by God to reflect His light, His perfection, His beauty, and the wonder of His design. Treasure it. Guard it. Your marriage is delicate, fragile, and temporary, yet it is a marvel of God’s perfect design.
The treasure of purity
Over and over, the Bible uses snow to depict purity. David prayed in his psalm of confession, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). The prophet Isaiah penned God’s invitation to His sin-stained people, “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).
Is your marriage “white as snow?” Is there any stain that needs to be washed away in the blood of the Lamb? Only when our marriages are as white as snow can they reflect the purity and radiant light of God’s presence.
The treasure of fruitfulness
Snow is not merely pretty. In God’s creative design, it also forms a vital function of providing a slow release of moisture in the spring along with fixing nitrogen from the air. It is the snow that falls in winter that waters the apple orchards of Washington State to blossom in the springtime with fruit. It is snow sent in winter that provides moisture in the ground so that the sown seeds in spring become the wheatfields of Nebraska that wave with grain in the summer sun. It is the melting snow from the mountains that slowly flows down to nurture the potatoes of Idaho throughout the spring and summer.
This treasure of snow is further proclaimed in Isaiah 55:10–11, where we read, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Does your marriage bestow life-giving fruitfulness to those around you? Do people come away from your hospitality refreshed or depressed? Are they encouraged or discouraged? May God help us to remember the treasures of the snow and to bring forth good fruit in our marriages.
