As we were talking last week about the purity and beauty of the snow, let us now think for a little while of its usefulness.

The Word of God tells us that “He giveth snow like wool.” [Psalm 147:16] Think of the ways in which the snow is “like wool.” In its appearance; you will say, so soft and white, and fleecy; it looks like wool. Yes, but did you know that the snow is “like wool” also in its warmth?

In the cold winter weather we clothe our bodies with woollen garments, and put thick woollen blankets on our beds to keep us warm. The wool has no warmth in itself, as you can tell by putting your hand on it.

But if you keep your hand there for a little while the wool begins to feel warm. The warmth does not come from the wool, but from your hand, and the wool keeps us warm because it comes in the warmth that comes from our bodies and keeps it from escaping into the air.

And so it is with the snowy garment that the Lord spreads over the earth. It holds in the warmth that is coming from the earth and keeps it warm, just as our woollen garments keep us warm, and as the woolly fleece of the sheep, which grows so thick in the winter, keeps it warm.

Think, dear children; how wonderful and beautiful are the ways of our God, and how all things in His great universe are “working together for good.” The cold which makes the earth need this warm covering is the very thing that God uses to provide it; for this same cold freezes the water into little snow-flakes, which do not sink into the earth, but lie upon the ground to keep it warm.

In warm countries, or in mild winters, when the earth does not need this protection, there is very little if any snow. But the colder the weather, the more snow falls, and the thicker and warmer is the covering.

Where the snow is blown away from any spot in the very cold weather, the ground gets frozen quite deep down, and the seeds and roots of plants that are buried in it are destroyed, while the ground that has been covered with snow is quite uninjured.

And then when the warmer weather makes the snow covering no longer necessary for the ground, it becomes useful to it in another way. As it melts it runs into the soil to moisten and soften it, and make it ready for the seeds and plants. “The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud.” [Isa. 55:10]

But it is not only in the winter that the earth is watered with “the snow from heaven.” As we go higher and higher above the earth the air gets colder and colder, until on the tops of high mountains, above what is called “the snowline,” it is so cold that the snow never melts, but falls continually all the year round.

The fresh snow falling on the mountain, presses down that which is underneath it, and it runs down the sides of the mountain in frozen streams called “glaciers” or ice-rivers. When it gets down into the warmer air, the glacier melts and forms a river.

This river, which you will see gets its supply of water from the snow falling on the top of the mountain, runs through the land to “water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud.” And so in sending “the snow from heaven,” the Lord is providing a constant supply of water for the land, even in the hottest summer. All these “great things which we cannot comprehend,” God is doing for us when “He saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth.” Job 37:5, 6.

The Present Truth – January 5, 1899
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  Snow Like Wool