Pure as the Driven Snow

Snow – it’s the proverbial measure of clean, bright purity -- as in Snow White and Ivory Snow laundry soap.

I like Mae West’s quip “I used to be pure as snow but I drifted.”

We’ve all drifted, Mae.  Anyone who says otherwise is giving themselves a snow job.  Politicians do it with words; most of us cover up with denial.

King David knew that you can’t cover up forever.  His resume includes a shameful shabby episode – when he seduced his friend’s wife and then arranged the murder of the cuckolded man.  He pretended innocence as long as he could, but eventually broke through his denial.  


Beneath his obvious crimes, he saw more subtle and hidden violations – his own integrity shattered and a flouting of God’s mercy. His confession in Psalm 51 is a classic of a soul ‘coming clean’, expressed here in contemporary language.

Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean

Scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.”

Three centuries later, it was the whole nation with blood on their hands.  Injustice was rampant; oppression rife and the poor victimized everywhere. Isaiah urged his people to clean up their act.  No failure is beyond forgiveness, he says, using snow imagery again to call people to renewal.

If your sins are blood-red, they’ll be snow-white;
If they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like wool.
Isaiah 1:18

God’s forgiveness is no snow job - nothing is covered up.  It names our grievous acts for what they are – and then mercifully purges us clean.  Clean hands, clean hearts, clean as the driven snow – no matter how we’ve drifted.

Photo credit above