God's Winter Blanket

We had so much snow this last winter it was on my mind all the time. So when read in the book of Psalms, "He gives snow like wool." It got me to thinking about how snow is like a wool blanket.

Later that day at work while doing some calculations about heat flow. I saw in this table that snow is just about as good of an insulator as wool. So the image that came to my mind was that of God throwing this beautiful white blanket on the earth to protect it from the coming cold of winter. The scientific fact is that the snow does protect the ground from hard freezes. The snow also gives protection for many different animals so they may survive the cold of winter. The polar bears will dig a snow cave to be protected from the elements. The little brown field mice make tunnels. Partridge will burrow in the snow and sleep all night. This burrowing keeps partridge warm and invisible to predators. The Inuit in the far north have made homes out of snow. Snow is in so many ways just like wool.

Fruit growers know that to protect their crops from a hard frost or cold weather they spray water on them. So when the water freezes some heat goes into the fruit, then the ice acts as an insulator to prevent the fruit from being ruined. If its short term the fruit is saved. Which reminded me that Jesus told one church he would have them hot or cold, not something lukewarm that rots. Cold food is preserved while lukewarm food breeds bacteria and stinks. Cold preserves. The snow insulates, cools, hides, and covers.

In the spring the snow provides life-giving water to fill streams and lakes. Which reminded me that God provided a life giving sacrifice at Passover in the spring. "⁸But God commanded his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him," Rom 5, all this was prepared ahead of time.

So in the end there is a physical reality to snow being like wool, which leads me to other thoughts about how God provides for His creation.