This week tons and tons of snow covered New Jersey. In drifts and valleys, whole neighborhoods were given fresh blankets of cold, soft, quiet. It is a sight to behold in the moonlight, when you’re cozied up with some hot chocolate, in your PJs, or next to a fire. It’s truly beautiful, until you need to get the shovel out. Once you have the shovel in your hand snow stops being fun. It’s heavy and wet, and instead of being beautiful it becomes a responsibility that you need to address.
Snow masks the land; holes and hills get evened out, and all the little imperfections are hidden beneath a veil. We know in our hearts that it won’t be this way for long and no matter how beautiful it is or how hard we try, we can’t keep the snow forever. I think we see the way snow hides imperfections in the land and try to do the same thing with our lives.
We hide the things we don’t like about ourselves with traits we wish we had. Hiding insecurity with over-confidence, fear of not being good enough with perfectionism, loneliness with shallow relationships, and the list could go on and on. Even as Christians we sometimes feel the need to hide that we are sinful people (just like everyone else) by putting our holiness on display. Acting as though seeing our perfect lives is what saves people rather than Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Snow doesn’t last. Keeping up a thin layer of perfectionism / false confidence / saintliness is exhausting; eventually you will slip up and show people the real you. We all have the mark of sin on our lives, we all need a savior. So why not skip all the trouble and just be your authentic self? Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is what ultimately covers your imperfections. Lean into that salvation and let it bring good news to your heart when you feel the need to put on a show for the world. The snow will melt. Our masks will fall. And just like the hard work of digging ourselves out after a blizzard, we need to be willing to do the hard work of being honest with the world and say, “I am a sinner saved by grace. I am trying to do better; failing just means I need to try again.”