ABOVE THE CLOUDS

“Don’t be afraid!” the angel said, “For you are very precious to God.  Peace!  Be encouraged!  Be Strong!”

When He spoke these words to me, I suddenly felt stronger and said to Him, “Please speak to me, my Lord, for you have strengthened me.” Daniel 10:19

 Last night clouds darkened the western horizon as thunder rolled and lightning jagged to the earth.  The thunder rumbled and grumbled and lightening flashed while clouds moved across the sky.  Pretty soon the rain began, easy at first then a downpour watering the dry earth, renewing all living things. 

What a great idea God had when He created clouds!  Have you ever thought of what the Earth would be like without them?  Like the article below says, our beautiful Earth would be a barren, lifeless desert without the life-giving water and shade of the clouds.

 Oh sometimes I don’t welcome the clouds and storms.  Like when it snows for the hundredth time in the middle of winter.  Or when I want to have a picnic and a huge thunder storm rolls in. Or what about in spring when the clouds bring snow? 

 Or when I sat on the airstrip at the Dickinson airport in a plane for three hours and clouds dumping wet snow kept us from leaving the ground.  The plane was small and stuffy and I wanted nothing but out!  Forget about going to Washington to see my sisters, just let me go home.  Only prayer and reading scripture kept me from pounding my fists on the door and screaming to get out. 

 I wasn’t too fond of those clouds then. Or when we finally did take to the air and it was nothing but white clouds outside the window as the plane climbed steeply into the sky. Clouds laden with wet freezing snow whipping by the small window.  Clouds that hid all things from sight, engulfing the speeding plane.  Oppressive, suffocating clouds that seemed to suck the life out of the screaming engines would certainly be the end of my life on earth.  Surely I would soon be winging my way to Glory!

 Then we burst from the clouds into the sun.  The plane leveled out and the roar of the engines subsided to a quiet hum.  Blue sky met my eyes.  Brilliant sun shone off the glorious white clouds below, the very clouds that were oppressive and terrifying just a few minutes before.

 What a fantastic sight!  White shinning clouds with whipped peaks, like meringue on a lemon pie.  Tendrils of lacy clouds blowing in the wind, like dancing angels on top of a white frosted cake.  Like the author below says, it was breathtakingly beautiful above the clouds.  And peaceful, tranquil, amazingly let-out-your-breath quiet.

 Ok so this is like our lives, right?  Troubles come like storms rolling in on the wind or setting down and dumping snow or rain.  Without the clouds our lives would be barren and dry. Our faith would dry up and blow away in the wind.

 What would we know if everything was good and easy?  Would we know that God is our strength?  Would we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that in ALL things we can trust Him?  Would we know He walks by our sides in the storms?

            Like Maci, my granddaughter said one time, “Without troubles it would be too easy.  We would be weak.”

 Clouds keep moving, as the article below says, so true, storms pass.  Even the long blizzards that sit in for several days.  They too move on.  The sun shines again and it’s glorious!  The earth is renewed and cleansed. All living things are refreshed by the life-sustaining water and coolness.  All things grow and flourish.  So it is for us, the storm rolls away, but because of the life-giving water, we grow and bear fruit.

 However, the key is to find peace in the roiling clouds.  In the midst of the storm, when the thunder is rattling the windows, when the wind is blowing snow against all sides of the house, when the dark night is turned bright as day by continual lightning, when wind blows the trees sideways and screams above the earth, that’s when we need to dig in and hold on to our Lord. 

 Trust that He has this.  All the time.  He controls the wind.  He tips the jars of rain to water the earth.  He has the key to the store houses of snow, and He knows when to open them.  He is not surprised by the storms that come into our lives and He knows what each one of us needs.  The right portion, the right time.

 Find shelter under His wings.  That’s what we need to do.  Hide, hunker down and cry out to Him!  Hold on for dear life and never let go!

 When He says “it’s time to take your sword and march, you have a battle to fight.” Then march we should, into the wind and through the rain, fighting the fight that needs to be fought.  But never fear He is always there.  He is near, He is our bulwark. He has our backs.  He holds us up with His righteous right hand. 

 For even though He may ask us to fight the battle, He marches with us.  He fights the fight.  He has the Victory.  Always.!

 So don’t fear the clouds, but wait for the glory.  It is coming.

“He will be gracious to you if you ask for help.  He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. 

Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, He will still be with you to teach you.

You will see your Teacher with your own eyes.  Your own ears will hear Him.  Right behind you a voice will say “This is the way you should go.” whether to the right or to the left.”  Isaiah 30:19-21

“I WAIT QUIETLY  BEFORE GOD, FOR MY VICTORY COMES FROM HIM.

He ALONE is my Rock and my Salvation, my Fortress where I will NEVER be shaken.” Psalm 62:1-2

Here is the article from Streams In The Desert, by L.B. Cowman that got my thoughts going for this.

 But now, the sun cannot be looked at – it is bright in the skies – after a wind passed and swept the clouds away.—Job 37:21

The world owes much of its beauty to cloudland. The unchanging blue of the Italian sky hardly compensates for the changefulness and glory of the clouds. Earth would become a wilderness apart from their ministry. There are clouds in human life, shadowing, refreshing, and sometimes draping it in blackness of night; but there is never a cloud without its bright light. “I do set my bow in the cloud!”

If we could see the clouds from the other side where they lie in billowy glory, bathed in the light they intercept, like heaped ranges of Alps, we should be amazed at their splendid magnificence.

We look at their under side; but who shall describe the bright light that bathes their summits and searches their valleys and is reflected from every pinnacle of their expanse? Is not every drop drinking in health-giving qualities, which it will carry to the earth?

O child of God! If you could see your sorrows and troubles from the other side; if instead of looking up at them from earth, you would look down on them from the heavenly places where you sit with Christ; if you knew how they are reflecting in prismatic beauty before the gaze of Heaven, the bright light of Christ’s face, you would be content that they should cast their deep shadows over the mountain slopes of existence. Only remember that clouds are always moving and passing before God’s cleansing wind.
–Selected

“I cannot know why suddenly the storm 
Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath; 
But this I know–God watches all my path, 
And I can trust.

“I may not draw aside the mystic veil 
That hides the unknown future from my sight, 
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light; 
But I can trust.

“I have no power to look across the tide, 
To see while here the land beyond the river; 
But this I , know–I shall be Gods forever; 
So I can trust