A Winter Blanket

HAVE you ever gazed, mesmerized, at falling snow? If so, no doubt you will agree that this is one of the most beautiful and tranquil of sights—particularly if you are safe and warm indoors and have no pressing need to travel. As the white blanket thickens, it seems to spread a profound peace and quiet everywhere. Even the din of the city is dampened as the gentle flakes fall in their millions.

Isn’t it amazing, though, how something as seemingly gentle as a snowfall can become destructive? Such bustling cities as New York—often billed as “the city that never sleeps”—can be brought to a humiliating halt if the snow piles up high enough.

Little wonder, then, that God asked the faithful man Job: “Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow, or do you see even the storehouses of the hail, which I have kept back for the time of distress, for the day of fight and war?” (Job 38:22, 23) In the hands of its Creator, Jehovah God, snow can be a formidable weapon indeed.

However, snow often plays a role in preserving life rather than in bringing destruction. For example, the Bible says that God “is giving snow like wool.” (Psalm 147:16) How is snow like wool? The Bible uses both snow and wool to represent whiteness and purity. (Isaiah 1:18) But there is another important similarity. Both snow and wool act as insulators. The World Book Encyclopedia says: “Wool . . . insulates against both cold and heat.” And of snow, World Book notes that it too “serves as a good insulator. Snow helps protect plants and hibernating animals from the cold winter air.”

So the next time you watch the snow falling from the sky, you may want to think of God’s awesome power. Or you may choose to think of the gentle protection he provides as he spreads a white blanket over his creation, much the way a loving parent might tuck a child safely into bed.