Into the Woods: Love like Radiant Diamonds
Doug Smith
““For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.””
A brief but interesting snowfall occurred in some parts of Muskoka at the end of February, with large, icy snowflakes falling for just a few minutes. It was cold enough that the flakes weren't absorbed into the existing banks of snow, but accumulated on top. The result was a glistening layer of snow that sparkled like diamonds when the sun came out afterwards. It was like an illustration for the line in the Needtobreathe song, 'Multiplied': "Your love is like radiant diamonds". (You can listen to the whole song by clicking play on the YouTube video.)
A bright, sunny winter day after a snowfall occasionally creates conditions that make the snow sparkle. When it does happen, it is almost magical, an enchanting aspect of winter. You may have experienced this distinctive winter phenomenon where you live, or perhaps at Beacon's Family Day weekend this past February.
What makes snow sparkle like that? The whyfiles.org website has a good explanation, "Flat snowflakes resting on top of a blanket of snow also can act like a mirror, reflecting a portion of the sun’s image toward your eye. Each ‘sparkle’ is a reflection of the sun’s image from a single crystal. Whether we see the sparkle depends on the angle between the sun, the snowflake’s position on the snow and the location of our eye. When the angle is right, when we walk by a field of snow, we’ll see glitter as the sun is reflected by different snowflakes."
What is also amazing is that each sparkling crystal of snow is unique, as Wilson 'Snowflake' Bentley proved almost 100 years ago. Bentley, who lived from 1865 to 1931, devoted his life to capturing the incredible beauty and diversity of snowflakes with his camera. He was the first person to photograph snowflakes, and in the process he also discovered that no two snowflakes are exactly alike.
But before Bentley was even born another naturalist was also captivated by snowflakes, Henry David Thoreau found them fascinating, enraptured with the incredible beauty of the details of their form. "How full of the creative genius is the air in which these are generated! I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat. Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand."
Though not a believer (Thoreau was a transcendentalist), he nonetheless gave God credit as Creator, expressing this in surprising terms, "I may say that the Maker of the world exhausts his skill with each snowflake and dewdrop he sends down. We think that the one mechanically coheres, and that the other simply flows together and falls, but in truth they are the produce of enthusiasm ... finished with the artist's utmost skill."
If every unique snowflake is so intricately made what does that tell us about all of God's amazing Creation? Romans 1:20 explains, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."