Winter Forest: From Scarlet Sin to Snow-White Grace

I love to picture Isaiah 1:18 in living color: “Come now, let us reason together… Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow,” God says to his people (KJV).

The color contrast in this verse fascinates me, and many times I have experimented with painting the sharp distinction of crimson against the unstained purity of white. Like coloring a dark red cardinal against fresh-fallen snow. That striking contrast of hues inspired my oil painting I call “Winter Forest.”

I completed this painting a long time ago, and when I look at it now, I would probably rename it “A Road Less Traveled.” The untouched snow conceals old wagon wheel ruts that disappear around the bend. The wonder of a winding road elicits many questions: Where is it going? Should I venture on? Who passed this way before? The beauty of a less-traveled road calls to us, although if we took one step more along this path, the sassy red cardinals would fly away in a flash. 

The snow-covered road was my favorite part to paint. I enjoyed painting the crisp blue shadows of the tracks which gives the road it’s definition, together with the lavender and soft orchid pink. We don’t expect to find those colors in newly fallen snow, but in this painting, our eyes interpret those tones as sun-shadowed white on a cold and cloudless day.

Lavender and pink are not the only surprising colors on this canvas. While painting the evergreens, I progressively added more and more blue as I rendered the lower branches. Even so, with all these other colors filling the scene, the contrast of scarlet cardinals against untrodden snow still captures our focus and imagination.

It reminds me of the old hymn written by James Nicholson in 1872. The chorus goes:

Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

And that brings us back full circle to Isaiah 1:18. Though our sins are cardinal red, the forgiveness of Jesus cleanses us whiter than snow before our heavenly Father. Oh, what mercy! Yes, his mercy makes the road less traveled eternally worthwhile.

-Joni Eareckson Tada