Refresh and Revive
It snowed the other evening. Snow during a school year for a teacher and students means a potential “snow day” where we have the opportunity to miss school for a day because of the likely hazardous road conditions. In truth…though the day is meant to keep everyone safe, we all look forward to the day off because it is an unscheduled reprieve from the hum-drum daily routine.
Just before the snow came, I had been watching (as I’m sure many others had been) the weather progression that night and kept looking out the window. When the first downy flakes began to fall, I felt a surge of excitement and hope…but the longer I stood there peering out the window, the less consumed I was with the thought of the “snow day” and was instead increasingly more captivated with the soft flakes gently floating down. It was so peaceful…so calm. It was exquisite.
The snow fell quietly in lovely and intricate patterns, like a veil of ivory lace delicately draping from the sky. It built pure white mounds on the bare bark of trees, rooftops, and shrubs, and softly covered the lifeless remnants of a faded out fall turned to the cold barren days of winter, and the beauty of it was…everything that had felt distinctly ordinary and unimportant or even empty and desolate became quite beautiful when covered in the life-giving snow and felt almost new, undefiled, and clean. There was a hopefulness about it…
As I stood there, my mind went to the scripture in Isaiah: “’Come now, let us settle the matter,’ 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 1:18 And it made me consider how God took that which was ordinary and unimportant in us, took that which was unclean and sinful in us, and covered it.
Because of Jesus’ blood and atonement, the old and dead man in us has been covered and buried, and we can walk in newness of life: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19,20 Now we can walk in His blessings. In fact, Psalm 32:1 says, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”
And just like the life-giving snow will melt into waters of refreshing and revive the trees, the shrubs and all of life, the same is true with the Lord. Through Him and the watering of His Word and His Spirit, we are refreshed and revived into new life, and we will grow and blossom and produce abundant fruit.
Today, let’s rejoice in the salvation we have received from the Lord. Let’s allow His Word and His Spirit to refresh and revive us and produce fruit in us. Let us share with others the Good News of His forgiveness—how He will cover and forgive their sin just like He did ours and how He will also bring them into newness of life.
Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member