Snow Figures and the Hope of Immortality
Story★★★★Some years ago I was preaching at Dartmouth college. The students had a practice of building designs in the snow. Some of the snow figures showed real creative skill. But even at their best those designs in the snow could hardly call forth as painstaking effort or attain as much finesse as if they were done in enduring marble. That fact was in my mind when I went to conduct a forum with the students. Those who coached me about some of the questions I might expect said that the issue of immortality would not be raised. But the very second query put to me by the students was about the life hereafter. Yes, even the young want to know whether these lives which we are to spend fifty, seventy or eighty years developing are just snow figures that will melt into nothingness when death comes or whether we are to have as our wages the glory of going on.
Christ told us that this hope of going on is trustworthy. He said, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” It was this hope which sustained Paul even to the end. It is in this hope that the noblest souls down the ages have done the world’s best work. It is this hope which can save us now—and nothing else.
Rev. Ralph W. Sockman, D.D.
The point
Sockman reflects on student discussions of immortality, comparing human lives to snow figures unless sustained by Christ's promise; Christ's assurance that life continues beyond this earthly existence is the hope that motivates noble work.