For several years my wife and I lived on a mountain just above the snow line. On winter mornings we would rush to the window to see if our world was covered with a blanket of white. Sometimes it looked so bright it seemed to purify everything it touched. It almost felt like heaven and earth were one. We would spend hours watching the snowflakes falling softly and quietly to the ground, making everything appear clean and new.

As I looked on the wonder of God’s creation, I thought of how King David wrote, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” I, too, longed to have my heart and life that clean. I remembered how for many years I had walked away from God and covered my life with the stains of sin. If only they could be erased — if only I could be that clean.

One of the most amazing things about God is the infinite number of ways he showers us with his love, mercy and forgiveness. For “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

For me, it was at a time when I thought I had gone too far and passed the limits of his grace, that he showed me how much he really did love a sinner like me.

I had been struggling for weeks, wondering if God would forgive or accept me back into his fold. It was during the darkest hours of this time that I experienced his personal touch in my life.

One afternoon, after weeks of what seemed like hopelessness and despair, I was resting for a few moments in our office when suddenly it seemed as if a voice spoke to me and said, “You have passed from darkness into light.”

For the first time in years, I began to experience peace and a surge of hope that God could really love me. I told him one day I would shout it from the mountaintops and tell others how much I loved him and how thankful I was for what he had done for me.

Today, as you read this, you may be wondering if God can really love you or forgive all your sins. I can say, or “shout it,” with complete confidence that his promises are true and if you come to him as you are he “will in no wise cast” you out.

You too can be “whiter than snow.” This very moment Jesus is waiting to welcome you home.

He already paid the price for your salvation. All you need to do is accept this wonderful gift of eternal life. Won’t you ask him to come into your life today?

(Steve Nelson pastors the Powell and Cody Seventh-day Adventist churches.)