Winter Warmth

For the past few hours, the sky has opened and dropped big fluffy flakes of snow over the earth. Outside my window everything is white except the fence and the side of the neighbor’s house. Snow has its way of equalizing everything. No seam divides the sky from the rooftops. The leafless fruit trees have turned to white lace, the tool shed is cozily blanketed under a six inch white comforter, and the white pine tree boughs bend in reverence. Watching this white-on-white world almost seems unreal—like watching a snow globe one never has to shake.

I know from experience that it is cold out there, but in here I am warm. I love this season when fireplaces blaze, hugs and cuddling bring warmth to the body as well as the heart, a cup of hot chocolate is more than just drink, and everyone wants to stay indoors chatting together. In its strange way, winter has a wonderfully warm feel to it.

But there is more. Watching the snow also reminds me that the Lord “hast made summer and winter” (Psalm 74:17), and that Nephi (1 Nephi 11:8) and Joseph Smith (D&C 110:3) reported that when He appeared to them, the Savior was like the “pure snow.” I think most people equate the Savior with everything warm—the sun, brightness, heat, but as Alma teaches us “all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it” (Alma 30:44). Winter is on the face of the earth right now. So as I watch this beautiful, pure white scene, I think of the Savior and how at some point He will make all things pure and bright.