10th March 2025

Just when I assumed winter was over, and that we would again slip past a year with measurable snow, in it came, wave after wave of snow. I cannot remember having more than two snow days in a row for school, but we are now on day five. I stuck a ruler in the snow on top of the table outside when the snow began to get deep, the ruler disappeared; it was lost somewhere in that frozen mountain. How quietly and stealthily the snow changes everything. What was, is still there, but now you cannot see it past the blanket that has overtaken it. In its way, it covers a lot we wish we did not see or would like to hide, but the weight and the mess it makes are hard to deal with. There comes a time when you no longer want to deal with it all; the prettiness of it loses its charm, but now it is more than you can handle on your own.

And so is the weight and the mess of sin. It has its attractions. It may look like a way to cover over all that you do not want to see and deal with, but like the snow, it builds layers and what was, is still there hidden below it all, just waiting to emerge again. Like the layers of snow, sin builds its weight and mess until you can no longer deal with it on your own. I wonder sometimes if it is this weight that is the tipping point to realising that we need help, and that makes us willing to let go and ask for help. It is not wrong to ask for help, in fact, it is wrong to continue in sin thinking we are our own way out. After all, we are the ones who got ourselves into the mess in the first place.

The Psalmist cried out in Psalm 27:7-8: ‘Hear my voice when I call, LORD, be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, seek his face! Your face LORD I will seek.’ The turning point in our life has been reached, our salvation is near in the form of Jesus Christ. He is just waiting for our recognition of the need for his mercy and grace. He has and will continue to remove the sin that covers us, freeing us from its weight that held us in its mercy. Just like the weight of too much snow on our roof, so too, we are in danger of a total collapse from this sin. After the sin is removed by Jesus, we then can continue to say, ‘Teach me your ways, LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.’ (v.11).

The wonderful thing is that God will lead us and be with us until we are home again in his arms. As the snow gives way to the warmer temperatures, so our sin gives way to God’s merciful salvation. What is too weighty for us, is no match for Jesus.

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