Snow is winter’s inevitable companion for us who live in Northeastern states. My home is in Geauga County, known as Ohio’s snowbelt. Our province center, its highest point, is wittily called its buckle.

As I write this, snow blankets the ground, flurries are almost nonstop. Snowplows again woke me up around 3:30 a.m. Thanks to Lake Erie’s effect, we will see a few more days of this white stuff falling from the sky. The snow is beautiful as it decorates our pine grove, and sunshine makes it glisten like a field of diamonds. (I always think it was kind of God to make snow white instead of gray, brown, or black!)

Of course, snow has its negative points. We’re used to cars skidding or crashing, frozen car doors, numb fingers and noses, brushing snow off cars, shoveling snow, and putting boots on and taking them off. The other day my car failed to maneuver a turn, and after sliding across two lanes, I ended up on the brink of a gully with the Chagrin River at the bottom. Whew!

Yet, there’s nothing so cozy as sitting in a warm house and, watching through a window painted with lacy ice, large, soft snowflakes drift to earth.

Things to Do Outside

Snow has a starring role in my childhood memories: making snow angels in it, playing King of the Mountain on the mounds in the A&P parking lot, sledding on Ginny Hill, making snowmen, engaging in snowball fights and face washings, going ice skating, and tasting ice cream Mom made from snow like her mom made it in rural Illinois.

I’ve gone cross-country skiing but have yet to do regular skiing. However, I can see lights from the Alpine Valley ski resort on Mayfield Road.

On the Internet is a video of Franciscans frolicking in “Sister Snow.”

Snow Deprived

I feel sorry for people who live where they don’t experience and enjoy all four seasons.

Sisters who are here from Africa to study are delighted to be introduced to snow. Recently Sister Pascalia from Tanzania, well bundled up, ventured out into our courtyard.

A good snowfall is one human experience that Jesus was deprived of because he lived in a desert climate. The most he probably ever knew of snow was viewing snow-capped Mount Hermon in the distance.

This is the lovely pattern of ice that was on my window one year:

Naomi Meets This Phenomenon

Here is an excerpt from my book Book of Ruth: A Tale of Great Loves, in which Naomi experiences snow for the first time.

Happening to glance through the window behind Naomi, Ruth noticed snowflakes drifting down for the first time that year.

“Naomi, it’s snowing!” she shouted and leaped up. She ran to the courtyard door with Naomi close behind her.

“I’ve never seen snow before,” the Israelite woman said. “It doesn’t snow in Bethlehem, and I’ve never traveled far enough north where the snow on the top of Mount Hermon is visible.”

“You’re living high up on a plateau now. Sometimes it even snows in the spring.”

“Let’s go outside,” Ruth said and opened the door.

Naomi followed Ruth, eager to experience her first snowfall.  For a few moments she stood still, fascinated by the snow drifting from the sky slowly and softly, decorating the ground, her house, and now her with white crystals. Then, like a child, she twirled around, her arms outspread and her tunic flaring out to form a cone about her.

“These snowflakes are so big and beautiful. They look like the feathers of a white dove,” she said.

Naomi stretched out her hand, and when a few snowflakes landed on it, exclaimed, “They’re cold though!”

“You can catch them on your tongue,” Ruth said and demonstrated. “They won’t hurt you. They’re just water.”

Snowflakes

Snow’s loveliness reflects its all-beautiful Creator. Individual flakes are his delicate works of art. An unproven but common belief is that no two snowflakes are alike. In their uniqueness, snowflakes are like us, handcrafted individually by God. Someone, though, has identified eighty different patterns.

No doubt as a child you learned to cut snowflakes out of white paper.

A parable about a snowflake illustrates the power of one. A branch is laden with snow. One more snowflake lands on it, and that single flake causes the branch to break. That was probably “the last straw.” 

Snow in the Bible

The three men thrown into a fiery furnace for their faith sang, “Hoarfrost and snow, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever” (Daniel 3:70).

The whiteness of snow makes it an apt symbol for holiness. Yes, that is why a very good girl in a fairy tale is named Snow White. In Psalm 51:9 we ask God, “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” And God exhorts us through the prophet to set things right so that “Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).

The clothing of the angel at Jesus’s tomb was white as snow. (Matthew 28:3) God’s glory is perceived as light, which is represented by the color white. Hmm.

Trivia

Did you know there is a word for fear of snow? It’s chionophobia.

A legend about St. Mary Major basilica in Rome gave rise to Mary’s title Our Lady of the Snows.

It’s a common belief that Eskimos have many words for snow. We do too. Can you think of some?

What is your favorite snow memory?

Music about Snow

Haydn wrote the oratorio The Seasons. Here is the part called “Winter,” in which the music is cold and still. You might listen to it while staring at a snowfall and sipping hot cocoa.

If you prefer snow songs that are not classical, here are two “classics”:  Bing Crosby’s “Winter Wonderland” and Dean Martin’s “Let It Snow.”