雪のように白い

 

雪のように白い

冬です。私は冬が好きです。寒いです。でも、私は火にのためにありがたいです。  この朝、私は窓を見た。雪が見えます！ブーツを履きました。セーターを履きました。コートを着ました。外に出ました。雪を見た！地面は白です。木は白いです。雪が好きです。それは美しいです。それは清潔です。それは私に神について考えるします。私は悪いです。でも、神は許します。私の心は黒いです。彼はそれを白します。雪のように白い。神、許してくれてありがとうございます。神、雪ありがとうございます。

[Pronunciation]

Yuki no yō ni shiroi

Fuyu desu. Watashi wa fuyu ga sukidesu. Samui desu. Demo, watashi wa hi no tame ni arigatai desu. Kono asa, watashi wa mado o mita. Yuki ga miemasu! Būtsu o hakimashita. Sētā o hakimashita. Kōto o kimashita. Soto ni demashita. Yuki o mita! Jimen wa shirodesu. Ki wa shiroidesu. Yuki ga sukidesu. Sore wa utsukushī desu. Sore wa seiketsu desu. Sore wa watashi ni kami ni tsuite kangaeru shimasu. Watashi wa waruidesu. Demo, Kami wa yurushimasu. Watashi no kokoro wa kuroidesu. Kare wa sore o shiro shimasu. Yuki no yō ni shiroi. Kamisama, yuki arigatōgozaimasu. Kami, yurushite kurete arigatōgozaimasu. Kamisama, yuki arigatōgozaimasu.

[English]

White as Snow

It is Winter. I like Winter. It is cold. But, I am thankful for the fire. This morning, I look out the window. I saw snow! I put on boots. I put on a sweater. I put on a coat. I went outside. There is snow! The ground is white. The trees are white. I love snow. It is beautiful. It is clean. It makes me think of God. I am bad. But, God forgives. My heart is black. He makes it white. White as snow. God loves me! I love God! God, thank you for snow!

[New Japanese words/concepts]

ありがたい - arigatai - thankful

ブーツ - Būtsu - boots (note: boots, sweater, and coat written in katakana because they are English words. They aren't part of traditional Japanese dress because many places in Japan don't get much snow--except the mountains of course, where skiing is very popular today! :-) 

セーター - Sētā - sweater

コート - Kōto - coat

履く- haku - To wear/put on (past is hakimashita)

出る - deru - to exit/go out (past is demashita)

地面 - Jimen - the ground

清潔 -  seiketsu - clean/pure

考える - kangaeru - to think

許す - yurusu - to forgive (another form is "yurushite kurete", or "forgiving"--I still need to figure out the "-te" form of verbs)

心 -  kokoro - heart (as in mind, heart, spirit)

~ ~ ~

The Encounter (the lesson)

Snow is so fleeting. We don't get snow very much where I live, so it is always a highlight for me. Something to look forward to that brings some beauty to the cold, wet, Winter. I'm so glad God created snow! It is so beautiful! These are some of the thoughts I had this morning when I woke up to find a lovely blanket of snow on everything outside! And yet, by the time I got home from work... it was all melted away. But I think it is because it comes and goes so quickly, so silently, that I am so grateful for it. It reminds me again to focus on what I can appreciate and learn from every moment--every encounter--in life. 

Just as in many places in Japan, the nation of Israel (where much of the history recorded in the Bible took place) doesn't get a lot of snow. But today God brought to my mind some of the few verses that mention snow...

Job 38:22 "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,"

~ Snow truly is a treasure! Every single snowflake is different--showing the infinite imagination of their designer, God. And yet the most beautiful snowflake can melt in a moment. This makes it hard for us to study them. Even if we could, the best scientists and engineers couldn't possibly come up with or even duplicate so many intricate patterns! This is what God reminds Job of with his rhetorical question "hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow"? In other words, God's understanding was infinitely beyond Jobs in understanding. Which was important, considering his situation (read the book of Job)!

Proverbs 31:21 "She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet."

~ When I saw the snow on the lawn this morning, I didn't worry about whether my family would freeze today. I'm thankful that God has blessed us with a roof over our head, firewood to heat the house, and blankets and warm clothes to keep us warm. I say GOD provided these things--which He did!--but He uses people to bring His blessings about. For example, He provided me with a job so that I can pay the rent, He provided me with friends who shared their firewood with us, and He provided me with a mother who took the time to teach me skills such as how to spend money wisely, shop at the right stores, and sew or knit clothes and blankets for my family! This verse reminds me that I can be a "virtuous woman" (Proverbs 31:10) by putting the blessings God sends my way to use so that I can care for my loved ones. 

Isaiah 1:18 "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."

~ I love this promise! God is not an angry tyrant who cannot be reasoned with. He is a loving Father, always ready to hear from us if we will go to Him in prayer! As an analogy, this verse describes our sins as being the color red (scarlet or crimson). Red like blood. It reminds us of the blood that Jesus shed for us when He died on the cross to take the punishment we deserved for our sins. When we ask for His forgiveness, He takes those blood-red sins and washes them "white as snow"! In other words, He wipes our record clean, as though we had never sinned. If you have asked Jesus to save you (as I did as a 7-year-old girl), then when God looks at your record... He doesn't see any of the bad things you've done. He sees a clean slate. White as snow!