White as snow
Out my kitchen window I can see the snow falling. All is covered in white.
I am reminded of a joke a friend sent me yesterday. A little girl was attending a wedding and asked her mother why the bride was dressed in white. The mother replied that white was the color of happiness. Then the little girl asked why the groom was dressed in black.
In the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah one finds forgiveness or the washing away of sins compared to washing out the blood of the lamb and becoming white as snow. In Christian tradition the death of Christ becomes a metaphor for the washing away of sins – to become white as snow. One merely has to want to change - to let go of sinful habits and begin a new life grounded in the teachings of Jesus.
Hymns such as those written by Fanny Crosby proclaim “In the precious blood my Saviour shed He washed me white as snow.”
In another hymn Elvina Hall wrote: “Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
It is interesting to me that these phrases survived in the African American Church despite the history of racism which equated skin color with determining how one deserved to be treated. The artificial construct of race based on percentage of blood was for many an excuse to claim certain privileges. Sadly, groups such as the Alt-right continue to perpetuate this myth and, thus, to justify hateful, and sometimes violent behavior.
In physics, black and white are not colors because they do not have specific wavelengths. White light contains all wavelengths of visible color. Black is the absence of visible light.
It is easy form a physics standpoint to take back or reclaim the metaphor of white for the absence of sin or for a new beginning. White is inclusive. We are all equally deserving of a new beginning – of letting go of the ways that we harm ourselves, and mother earth. If sin is behavior which keeps me disconnected from the essence of who I am – the part of me which is necessarily a part of a greater whole – than absence of sin is a connection to that greater whole.
While it is true that the larger community is often focused on punishment rather than reclamation we can, regardless of our religious heritage claim our power and our right to celebrate the person we are today. We can quit punishing ourselves and become as pure as the new snow or certainly as pure as it is possible for us humans.
Clearly the metaphor is not about skin color, racial origins, gender, sexual orientation or even about religious frameworks. It is about the person we want to be today.
Oprah Winfrey in her speech at the Golden Globe on January 7, 2018 said, “ I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who’ve withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is the ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights.”
The snow, for me, is a reminder that while I cannot change my past, I can own it and I can embrace the fact that I am more than my worst sin. The new possibility – the new snow - is always present within me.
Written January 8, 2018
Out my kitchen window I can see the snow falling. All is covered in white.
I am reminded of a joke a friend sent me yesterday. A little girl was attending a wedding and asked her mother why the bride was dressed in white. The mother replied that white was the color of happiness. Then the little girl asked why the groom was dressed in black.
In the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah one finds forgiveness or the washing away of sins compared to washing out the blood of the lamb and becoming white as snow. In Christian tradition the death of Christ becomes a metaphor for the washing away of sins – to become white as snow. One merely has to want to change - to let go of sinful habits and begin a new life grounded in the teachings of Jesus.
Hymns such as those written by Fanny Crosby proclaim “In the precious blood my Saviour shed He washed me white as snow.”
In another hymn Elvina Hall wrote: “Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
It is interesting to me that these phrases survived in the African American Church despite the history of racism which equated skin color with determining how one deserved to be treated. The artificial construct of race based on percentage of blood was for many an excuse to claim certain privileges. Sadly, groups such as the Alt-right continue to perpetuate this myth and, thus, to justify hateful, and sometimes violent behavior.
In physics, black and white are not colors because they do not have specific wavelengths. White light contains all wavelengths of visible color. Black is the absence of visible light.
It is easy form a physics standpoint to take back or reclaim the metaphor of white for the absence of sin or for a new beginning. White is inclusive. We are all equally deserving of a new beginning – of letting go of the ways that we harm ourselves, and mother earth. If sin is behavior which keeps me disconnected from the essence of who I am – the part of me which is necessarily a part of a greater whole – than absence of sin is a connection to that greater whole.
While it is true that the larger community is often focused on punishment rather than reclamation we can, regardless of our religious heritage claim our power and our right to celebrate the person we are today. We can quit punishing ourselves and become as pure as the new snow or certainly as pure as it is possible for us humans.
Clearly the metaphor is not about skin color, racial origins, gender, sexual orientation or even about religious frameworks. It is about the person we want to be today.
Oprah Winfrey in her speech at the Golden Globe on January 7, 2018 said, “ I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who’ve withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is the ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights.”
The snow, for me, is a reminder that while I cannot change my past, I can own it and I can embrace the fact that I am more than my worst sin. The new possibility – the new snow - is always present within me.
Written January 8, 2018
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