Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan.

With winter weather about us, God leads our thoughts to consider again His handiwork in the snow. We must marvel at this aspect of creation and stop to consider the wondrous works of God. We see that God brings a particular freshness, beauty, and joy to our world when He sends snow. Many of us have awakened to a world transformed overnight. Dead leaves and dirt are covered in a blanket of pure white snow. Frost and snow lie upon the branches of the trees, and the thick snowy blanket upon the ground makes the home especially cozy. The blanket of snow absorbs much of the sound waves and hushes the hustle and bustle of our world. Snow-piles invite our children to jump, wrestle, and tunnel among them. And for those who are privileged to experience a crisp and cold winter, there is the “crunch” of the snow underfoot as you briskly make your way. Unfortunately, our childlike love for snow is often dampened by the extra work associated with it—shoveling, working in deep snow, getting stuck, bundling up, less than ideal driving conditions, and the like. Yet, snow ought to have an enjoyable place in our lives, and we are to learn to appreciate it as a gift from God. In particular, we see it as a gift from God, in that we recognize snow as another means by which we might know Him. While snow has many facets, it is the purpose of this article to focus on only one—how snow crystals are formed—and what this teaches us about our God.

Snow Without God?

This article was prompted by my discovering a new book entitled: The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty. I quickly read it, finding much of it exciting and fascinating. Yet, even after only a few paragraphs, it was clear that something was missing. Where was God? Throughout the entire book there was no reference to God, only to nature. How disappointing! Unbelievable effort must have been exerted to leave the Creator totally out of His creation! Yet, the facts that were presented about snow, and the clear, powerful writing, vivid pictures, and diagrams are fascinating when read with the proper perspective. So I kept the book and hope to share some of its findings with my students. What is so interesting about snow is all the variety of snow crystals that can exist and the fascinating ways in which God forms them. What is greatly disappointing, however, is the world’s denial of the hand of God in this work. An entire book, dedicated to explaining how snow crystals form and the beauty and diversity in these snow crystals, sadly begins and ends without mention of God.

The publisher (Voyageur Press) writes on the inside cover of the book that “The snowflake is a fleeting, mysterious work of nature’s [emphasis mine] art that has long fascinated humans.” They, herein, show no recognition of God in the work of forming the snow. The writers also show their unbelief as they deny the Creator and show honor to the creation rather than to God. “So where is the creative genius, capable of designing snow crystals in an endless variety of beautiful patterns? It lives in the ever-changing wind” (p. 47). They credit an ever-changing wind, rather than the changeless God, for the creation of snow. “The symmetrical patterns demonstrate the spontaneous generation of complex structures in the physical world” (p. 104). “All crystals demonstrate an amazing organizational ability—they assemble themselves” (p. 38). The writers claim that the beautiful symmetry observed in snowflakes arises spontaneously and that the crystals assemble themselves into the orderly arrangement that they are observed to have. How true and plainly obvious is God’s word in Romans 1, when we see the unbelief of the world in these quotations. God teaches us that the world recognizes that God exists and that He must be served as God alone, but “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom 1:21).

We must humble ourselves, because if it were not for the grace of God that changed our hard heart into a heart of flesh, that opened our blind eyes to see God, we would, because of our depraved nature, do the same foolish things as the world. Without God’s grace we would believe the evolutionary teachings of the world. Thanks be to God that He gave us eyes to see and ears to hear the truth of the gospel. Thanks be to God that He has turned us from being wise in our own minds and made us to be the babes who have received the revelation of God. “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25).

Formation of Snow Crystals

The book’s publisher takes note of the fact that “even today at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we cannot fully explain how snowflakes are created. The mystery remains unsolved.” This reminds us of God’s speech to Job, when God showed His might by asking Job questions such as, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? …Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? …Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?” (Job 38:4, 22, 35). Man is feeble and nothing in the sight of God apart from Christ, and, for all his technology and developments, knows nothing about the creation if he does not know God who created it and upholds it each day. We know not a bit more than what God allows us to know, in what our puny, finite minds can hold. So much remains and will remain a mystery to us.

Yet, through a careful study, we observe the characteristics of snow crystals and categorize them into two basic types of crystals: multi-branched snow stars, and long columnar or needle-like crystals. Although physicists and snow-watchers have classified snow crystals into 80 categories, we can consider all of these categories to be summarized into those two basic crystalline types. Snow star crystals, sometimes called stellar crystals, usually have six primary branches, with each of the branches having its own side-branches. Many times the side-branching on each original branch is symmetrical, although not necessarily. This is the kind of snow crystal most people picture when they think of snow—intricately branched snow crystals. The other type of snow crystal is the column-type or needle-like crystals. These are hexagonal prisms of ice. Imagine the typical wooden pencil that has six sides. Columnar crystals are thin columns of ice, usually in this hexagonal form, as pictured by the wooden pencil.

Snow crystals form in the upper atmosphere when water in the vapor form turns into water in the solid form. If the water vapor first turns into liquid water (rain) and then into the solid form, the precipitation formed is called “sleet.” Snow crystals, on the other hand, are formed when water vapor, under the correct temperature and atmospheric pressure, forms into solid water crystals. Any time a gas or liquid is cooled the molecules move slowly enough that they begin to crowd each other and make bonds with each other, forming a solid. As more water vapor lands on the ice crystal, the ice crystal slowly enlarges, and, in the case of stellar snow star crystals, more branches and side-branches appear on the ice crystal.

The complexity of the snow crystal depends on two main factors: temperature and humidity. These are the means God uses to form each snowflake into the particular, unique snowflake that is formed. Certain types of snow crystals form under certain atmospheric temperatures. At 28F and below, just below the freezing point of water, thin plate-like crystals form. At 23F through 6F, long thin needles form. At 5F through -12F, thin plate-like crystals form again, and at -13F, thick plate columnar crystals form. The level of moisture in the atmosphere also contributes to the shape of the snow crystal formed. More moisture in the atmosphere (high humidity) results in complex patterns of snow crystallization because more water vapor is available to join the already forming crystal. Low humidity results in more simple patterns forming.

The authors of The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty, explained snowflake formation this way: “The precise morphology of each falling crystal is determined by its random and erratic motions through the atmosphere. A complex path yields a complex snowflake. And since no two crystals follow exactly the same path to the ground, no two crystals will be identical in appearance” (p. 47). “With dozens or hundreds of distinct features, each in a particular location, it soon becomes extremely unlikely that two crystals will ever have all the same features in all the same places” (p. 103).

By contrast, we maintain that the snow crystals do not fall by some random erratic movement, but that God, in His providence, guides and directs the path of every single snowflake that is formed. We also believe that every snowflake is unique, not because of the improbability of any two snowflakes falling the same path with the same humidities and temperatures, but because the sovereign God is almighty, powerful, infinite, and incomprehensible, and He chooses a particular path for each snowflake. In His power He forms every detail of each snowflake as He causes each to move in the path He has willed for it. Confessing Belgic Confession Article 12, which states that God gave to every creature its being, shape, form, and several offices, we maintain that God forms each snow crystal. As God has formed everything else in the creation with such intricacy and detail, so He creates snow. And our God, whose ways are so far above our ways, always works and operates in an orderly way and, as in the case of snow formation, uses very simple techniques and variables (humidity, temperature, and time in the air) as means to form the snow. We do not deny what the scientist has observed, namely, that humidity and temperature are factors that make the snowflake have the appearance that it does. But we emphatically maintain that the sovereign God has ordained the snowflake formation to occur in this way, and each time He sends snow, He is immanently active in the formation of each particular snowflake. Thus, God’s power is clearly seen as we observe the detail in the snowflakes. We marvel at the minute details of snow crystal formation and confess, as Job had to, that we have not entered into the treasures of the snow.

Clear as Crystal

Although much could be written about snow and what it teaches about God, we limit ourselves to only one aspect here—its crystal formation. Certainly we know that the Bible talks about snow, as relating to its “whiteness,” as a picture of the washing away of our sins. But since this and other important spiritual truths have been dealt with already in other articles in the Beacon Lights and the Standard Bearer, we mention the purity of snow only in passing.*

As mentioned previously, God’s providence is clearly observed in the study of snow crystal formation. These snow crystals do not form at the “whim” of the wind, or by mere chance, spontaneously generating and assembling themselves. Each crystal is perfectly formed and fashioned according to the infinite wisdom of God. Each crystal is uniquely formed so that God reveals to us His majesty and power. In that, God is glorified. In His wisdom, He forms each crystal in the particular way He does with the goal that that particular formation show magnificently His glory.

Although the Bible does not specifically mention snowflakes as crystals, it does speak of other crystalline substances. Think, for example, ofRevelation 21, which pictures the church as a temple made up of many different and beautiful stones, or crystals.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal … and the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

Rev. 21:10-11, 19-20Each precious stone, each gem, each crystal (snowflake or otherwise) has a beauty of its own because of the wonder of its marvelous creation. Each gem is intricately designed and sculpted on the molecular level to give it its own beauty of color and shape—for the purpose of the splendor of the whole. A glorious figure it is—of a glorious church. Every member of the body of Christ is fitted perfectly in that temple, each in his own place, each made beautiful by the blood of Christ, each equipped by the Creator with gifts and abilities to be used for the benefit of the body. Yes, in their beauty and diversity, and with their multitude of shapes and forms, snow crystals, too, testify of the marvelous diversity in the body of Christ. May we be reminded of that glorious reality when we contemplate the treasures of the snow.

Snow crystals, particularly their formation, teach us one more thing about the church and its members. Just as God carries each snowflake through a particular path to the earth—a path necessary to bring about its beauty and intricacy (as it passes through different humidities of air and different temperatures of air, it forms into its own unique structure), so too God carries us through our particular path here on the earth. Each of us is formed and made into a particular member of the body of Christ, each with special abilities, characteristics, and beauty, by God’s shaping hand as He directs our pathway here below. We are brought through many diverse afflictions for the express purpose of God forming and trying us to make us “perfect,” lacking nothing, so that we are equipped for our particular place in heaven (James 1:2-4; I Pet. 1:6-7). All of us are born into the family we have, into the church community of which we are a part, into the schools we attend, so that we are molded and shaped for our place in the kingdom of heaven. All of our experiences are planned and directed by God as best for us in order that we be formed for our eternal place in glory.

This brings us unspeakable comfort and joy. Herein lies, at least in part, the answer for why we receive what befalls us in this life. Sometimes we cry out with the Psalmist, “Hath God forgotten to be gracious?” (Ps. 77:9). The answer is a resounding, “NO!” God remembers and loves us. In His love for us He makes and molds us for our particular, unique place in heaven. Whatever way He has chosen for us, we go on in faith, knowing it is the best and only way to make us into the unique members of His body that He wants us to be in order to glorify His good and gracious name to the fullest. Rejoice, then! Rejoice in the Lord always!—For we see the providential hand of God, that directs all events in our lives so that we are shaped and formed into exactly the beautiful members of the body of Christ that we are and ever shall be. Thanks be to God for the treasures of the snow that so vividly picture this reality!

*For more reading on the spiritual significance of snow read:

Huizenga, John. Beacon Lights: Ice Crystals Through the Spectacles of Scripture. Jan. 1999, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 13-14.

Lubbers, Mary Beth. Standard Bearer: Standing Before His Cold. Vol. 75, No. 11, pp. 250-1.