Whiter than snow

ohoh.
The forecast for Binghamton is snow squalls for the day we fly in to see my folks..
"I guess I need to pack snow clothes," I told Asherel.
"Hooray!" she yelped.  We rarely get to see snow here in the south so the snow to her doesn't represent hazardous driving or back breaking shoveling or black ice that flips cars.

But I packed snow play clothes for me too. I remembered the yearly snow sculptures we would build in our front yard . We never made just plain old snowmen. One year it was a snow dragon, another a snow whale. The year we made a giant snow dalmatian, the newspaper took a photo of it and we were front page news.

It can cause so much havoc- particularly to travelers, but it can also be such fun and so magically, softeningly, beautiful. The ugliest slum looks just like the grandest palace under a foot of new fallen snow. Still, it was snow that sent us South.

"That's it," I proclaimed, as Syracuse recorded its one hundred inches of unmelted snow that buried our mailboxes.
"I am tired of burrowing through snow tunnels to get the mail," I told Arvo.
We sat morosely looking out our second story window at a view we could not see because snow covered the window.
But now, I miss the snow, at least in theory. Particularly on Christmas. I doubt Mary and Joseph were praying for snow on that historic day. I think were I attempting a caveside birth with no access to drugs or heated blankets, I would not be looking for snow, no matter how picturesque it might make the birth announcements.

Which sent my highly inquisitive mind to a riveting new question that had never occurred to me. Does it ever snow in Bethlehem? All our Christmas nativity cards show silver white glitter sparkling all around the heavenly baby, with not a speck of frostbite to be seen eating away at his nose. I had never contemplated the potential inaccuracy of the scene. Could it be possible that Hallmark was conning us?  So I quickly researched this startling new thought and discovered that while rare, it does indeed snow in Bethlehem every few years. It would be fitting that the rare event of snow would accompany the unprecedented, unparalleled, extraordinary event of God becoming man that man might understand God.  If there was not actual snow, there certainly was metaphorical snow with the birth of the Savior who would blanket all our sins under a beautiful covering if only we would let Him.

So hooray, we are flying out to be covered in snow!

Psalm 51:6-8 (New International Version, ©2010)

⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
   you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
 ⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
   wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones you have crushed rejoice.