White as Snow

My photo challenge is over. I missed a few days, but it did challenge me to take pictures of the everyday, not just the special moments. 

The year's first snow. Now there really is nothing spectacular about it, but it is something that makes me love to take pictures. This snow was so pretty. Everything had an inch or two blanket of fluffy snow. The air was crisp and it felt so fresh. 

That morning we got the kids out of bed and got them into their snowsuits so that they could experience the first snow! Grace couldn't wait! Justice had no idea what was going on.

Outside Grace exclaimed, "Ohhh, SNOWMAN!"

We had just watched Frosty The Snowman so she equated all the snow with snowman. She loved walking through it and trying to make a ball out of it. 

Justice couldn't move in his snowsuit and was less than impressed. We wanted to touch it, but his hands had mittens on it. When Daddy gave him some fresh snow he finally cracked a smile, but it didn't last too long.

Of course, the white snow and cold air brings along the Christmas feeling. I baked goodies that day and played Christmas music that I had on my computer. 

But the best part was not the holiday spirit, but what snow truly reminds me of. 

"Your hands are full of blood;

wash and make yourselves clean. 

       Take your evil deeds 

       out of my sight! 

       Stop doing wrong,

learn to do right! 

       Seek justice, 

       encourage the oppressed.

       Defend the cause of the fatherless, 

       plead the case of the widow.

 "Come now, let us reason together," 

       says the LORD. 

       "Though your sins are like scarlet, 

       they shall be as white as snow; 

       though they are red as crimson, 

       they shall be like wool."

Isaiah 1:15b-18

When I see the snow, I honestly think of this. My hands are full of blood, red... My God tells me to stop doing what is wrong, but to learn to do right! (It's not just the cessation of doing wrong, but learning and doing the right thing!) 

Seek justice. Encourage the oppressed. Defend the fatherless and Plead the case of the widow. Those are such STRONG verbs for doing! By following after Him and believing in Him, he sees my scarlet hands...and he makes them white as snow. What a gracious God.  (Notice both words of grace and justice were in this paragraph...hmmm)

The first snow. It's such a reminder for me, that my Jesus has taken my bloody hands and cleaned them to be as white as snow.