Whiter than snow

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. - Psalm 51v7

While I don't necessarily like the inconvenience that comes with snowfall I have to admit that it is amazingly beautiful. This winter just passed we had the two heaviest snowfalls we have ever seen in Ireland. Ireland is already beautiful, but the snow made it even more so. In fact, the snow even made the normally ugly places beautiful.

David knew the reality of ugliness. He knew the ugliness of his own sin. He knew that there was nothing he could do about that ugliness apart from the Lord.

'Wash me,' he wrote, 'and I will be whiter than snow.' A passage in Isaiah reminds us that though our sins be 'as scarlet they shall be as white as snow.'

Only the Lord can turn our ugliness into beauty. Praise God for the knowledge that He can take the ugliest heart and make it as white as the purest snow.