WHITER THAN SNOW

 

A rain-snow mix has been pouring all day as I write this blog. Our landscape, recently dull brown and rust with fall and winter's chill, is now softly white-sculptured by millions of snowflakes. Pretty to look at, a chore to shovel—but I got out there and cleared the driveway and sidewalks. While doing so, the “snow event” got me thinking about the hymn with the line, “whiter than snow.”

Yes, it snows in the Holy Land. More on that later. The hymn connects with the adultery of King David. Though lauded as a warrior and leader, but he also had a sin problem. He lusted after the wife of one of his faithful soldiers. Their tryst resulted in a pregnancy. Seeking to cover it up, David had her soldier-husband placed at high risk in a battle to conveniently have him killed. Then he took the new widow home to add to his wife collection.

David's sin found him out, and he was chastised by one of the prophets. That's the back story of Psalm 51, where David comes off his throne of pride and confesses his sin. In repenting, he asked God to spiritually wash him and make him “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). On this side of Christ's bloody death on the cross, we understand the red-to-white analogy. The cross (red)—confessing our sins (black) and accepting God's forgiveness—is the only way to turn black to white, sin to “forgiven.”

As an aside, when David wrote, “Purge me with hyssop” (Psalm 51:7), he was referencing the Leviticus 14:1-8 ceremony using hyssop (a mint plant) and running water to cleanse a leper: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

The prophet Isaiah, in the same way, preached about sin and confession as he reached out to wayward Israelites: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)

If your idea of Israel is a warm, arid land, visit this site with lots of Holy Land snow photos: snow in israel - Search Images .Then consider the snowiest cities in the U.S. snowiest place in usa - Search Images 

But this isn't a blog about snow. It's about a little-known man—occupation “postal clerk” in Philadelphia (and later in Washington D.C.) in the mid 1800s—who connected winter's white with scripture's memorable description of forgiven sin. James Nicholson (1828-1876) immigrated from Ireland and was active in Philadelphia's Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church for about twenty years. At church, he led singing and did evangelistic work.

His poem about sin and snow came to the attention of musician William J. Kirkpatrick, who attended the same church. Their combined efforts in matching words and tune would give us the enduring hymn that begins, “Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole” and includes the chorus, “Whiter than snow...”

That hymn, and another by Nicholson (“There's a Beautiful Land on High”) were included in Ira Sankey's 1878 “Sacred Songs and Solos.” Containing about 200 tunes written or arranged by Sankey, it was translated into many languages, with worldwide sales exceeding 50 million. Truly, God can accomplish extraordinary things through faithful, ordinary people. And no doubt Nicholson would have considered himself very “ordinary”--just an Irish immigrant, post office worker, who studied and wrote about birds and forensic (crime-scene) medicine--and wrote a memorable hymn.

Be reminded of the hymn's message through this You-tube video:

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ENDINGS

The cliched cartoons portraying December 31 through January 1st usually picture two figures. One's the bent-over, long-bearded old guy slumping off with his curved-blade scythe. The other: a pert, diapered infant toddling into the drawing. “All of life's a circle”--lyrics to a pop group's hit--come to my mind....until I'm reminded of how scripture pictures the transitions of life. It's not about an “old guy” going off life's stage. It's about the eternal One who formed us, purposed us, and has marked the day when “now” will become our “eternity”--“which” eternity being our choice.

I shake my head over how a midnight alcohol-fueled hoopla around a clock in New York City gets such big coverage. Instead of parties, a reconsideration of purpose should propel us into a new year. E.M. Bounds, author, attorney and minister (1835-1913) considered these issues, too. In Heaven: a Place, a City, a Home (Revell, 1921, p. 125) he wrote:

Heaven ought to draw and engage us. Heaven ought to so fill our hearts and hands, our manner, and our conversation, our character and our features, that all would see that we are foreigners, strangers to this world...Heaven is our native land and home to us, and death to us is not the dying hour, but the birth hour.

I rediscovered this Bounds quote in a book by a grieving father, Levi Lusko, Through the Eyes of a Lion (W Publishing Group, 2015, p. 171). Lusko, whose daughter died in childhood, wrote of life's brevity: “Far better than living in denial about the fact that our lives will end is facing up to it and living in light of it. The only people who are truly ready to live are those who are prepared to die.”

Lusko also reminded readers that Heaven isn't just about “getting through the gates” through faith in Jesus Christ. What happens in Heaven is connected to what happened on earth. He quoted 19^th century missionary-to-India and author Amy Carmichael: “We will have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, and only a few hours before sunset in which to win them.”

Half a century ago, “All of Life's a Circle” topped pop music charts. Perhaps that's true in why we call birth to death a “cycle of life.” But God's perspective is linear, not cyclical: birth to eternity—with two choices for the route. One ignores God or just gives Him lip service. The other is eternally purposed.