Napoleon insolently sneered, "I observe that God is usually on the side of the strongest battalions." And how did God answer the taunt? In 1812 the glittering ranks of France and its tributary kings "” numbering some 600,000 men "” crossed the Niemen to invade Russia. They captured Smolensk, won the bloody battle of Borodino, and approached Moscow. Then God sent down on them the soft, feathery flakes of feeble, innocent snow. The snows of God, the soft snows that a breath can melt, were too strong for the mightiest battalions. The French soldiers perished by thousands, and the Cossacks with their lances thrust out the miserable, frozen, famine-stricken remnant that the northern winter had not slain. God was not on the side of the strongest battalion that time. Alexander of Russia knew to whom he owed the victory, if Napoleon did not, and on his commemorative medal were the words, "Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory."
Too many times we fail to recognize Who has given us the victory (inculding me). Thank God for His blessings!
Innocent Snow
