PERHAPS each dear child who reads this paper has thanked God for something. God has given us food and clothes, home and friends, health and strength, and many other things for which we often thank Him.
We may not remember so often to thank Him for the beautiful things we see and hear around us.
What pleasure we take in the bright spring time, when everything is fresh and green, when the beautiful flowers begin to bloom, and when the merry birds are singing all about us!
Summer follows with its abundant crops and other blessings, then fall, with its mild, pleasant days and beautiful autumn leaves.
Each season is different from the others and we appreciate the change and enjoy each as it comes.
Last of all we have winter, and I know many of my readers are glad to see the beautiful white snow. The millions of flakes falling so softly and silently have an attraction for us as they cover the ground, the fences, the buildings, the trees; everything, with a mantle of white.
After a new fallen snow we can see very plainly any dark object moving about, such as the rabbits running so swiftly over the snow and the snow-birds hopping about on the white branches.
The girl in our picture is pointing out something to her little brother. Perhaps she sees a bird or some other little creature out in the snow.
While we are thanking God for. all these pleasant scenes He gives us, the snow reminds us of the greatest, most wonderful gift of all. It is a gift that God offers to everyone. Some of you have accepted it. If there is one of you who has not, may you do so at once.
This wonderful gift of God is
ETERNAL LIFE.
God gave His own beloved Son to die on the cross, so that we need not die, but instead, receive everlasting life. The precious blood of Jesus was shed to wash away our sins, so that we may enter God’s presence without any sins upon us. He says (Isaiah 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)), “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
If our sins are washed away in Jesus’ blood, God sees us as pure and spotless as the beautiful snow.
This gift is worth far more than all other blessings you enjoy from day to day. If you do not possess it already, accept it now, for God is offering it to you and wants you to take it. Think, as you look out upon the whitest thing you have ever seen, the white glistening snow, how beautiful the blood of Jesus Christ can make you—how pure and holy in God’s sight.
Do not let those dark black sins rest upon you any longer; but say as David said, “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” Ps. 51:7.
ML 12/20/1903