A Winter Wonderland

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? (Job 38:22)

Standing alone on a snow-covered hill

God’s creation is full of wonder! Consider the snowflake

Water vapor cools into a drop and then freezes into a tiny hexagonal ice crystal smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

A road through the snowy woodsAs the crystal becomes larger, branches begin to sprout from the six corners of the hexagon.

On a microscopic level, the formation of the crystals is a complex process, and it leads to an almost infinite number of possible variations. So no two snowflakes are exactly the same.

Think about it. How many snowflakes fall in one single snowstorm? Some estimate approximately twenty trillion. That’s 20,000,000,000,000!

Snowy HillThe Northwoods Conference Center

Wilson A. Bentley Wilson A. Bentley, "The Snowflake Man", was the first person to ever photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. He went on to take pictures of more than 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime. And he never found any two alike. He wrote:

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

As I photograph the beauty of the snow around me in the magnificent Northwoods of Michigan, I am left in awe at the wonder of God’s creation.

 Isaiah 1:18Morning sun on snow

Come 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)

6 Comments

  1. James January 25, 2008 at 11:12 am #

    Beautiful; the country up there in Michigan is absolutely beautiful. God’s creation is beautiful. Knowing the little details makes me appreciate it all the more!

  2. Crystal Thompson January 25, 2008 at 7:10 pm #

    Great pictures. Another thing about the snowflake I heard is that at the center of everyone is a tiny, inticately detailed sculpture. Also, that the man who made the discovery of which you spoke became a Chritian b/c of his discovery. He believed that something with such detail that nobody normally sees could not have happened by chance.

  3. Donald January 31, 2008 at 2:14 am #

    Hey Robert, I really enjoyed reading that. Last night my co-worker Nathan mentioned the very verse you had in the picture about becoming whiter than snow. Evidently when Wycliff translators needed to translate it into a language used on a Pacific island where there was no snow, they decided to say instead “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be whiter than the inside of a coconut”!

  4. Esther January 31, 2008 at 10:33 am #

    It’s snowing here right now. Like James said, God’s handiwork is beautiful. It’s so relaxing to watch the snowflakes fall.

  5. Don and Donna February 3, 2008 at 4:22 pm #

    We saw a book once in a bookstore that was full of nothing but beautiful pictures of snowflakes.

  6. Daniel August 29, 2009 at 8:00 am #

    I’ve always wondered at God’s creativity

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