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In the Shadow of a Cloud




Introduction

Don’t you just love those beautiful, puffy and billowy clouds of Fall? Can’t get enough of them. I could stare for hours at them as they roll by. But what of the other kinds of clouds that come our way? You know exactly what I am speaking of, those angry, dark and lightening filled clouds that seem to up-end our plans for calm and peace. And what of those destructive winds that come with these mean looking clouds? Yes, I could do without them.


Last week I mentioned two friends who had the shadows of stormy clouds roll over their lives in the past weeks. What about you? Any troubling clouds overhead? If you are my age you have experienced and survived many cloudy storms already. So much so that wisdom whispers to you more turbulent clouds are probably not too far off in the distance. Health clouds, financial clouds, you name them, they just might be forming on the horizon. Whatever age you are, along with your “being,” there seem to be clouds overhead or will be. Money, careers, parents, kids, friends, bosses, marriage, educations, should I go on? And these are just the clouds that pass over our little personal domains. What about our world at large? It is producing so many violent clouds right now that our heads are spinning. Clouds.


When I wrote this letter my father was in a very cloudy period of his long life. A few days from 99 years old, health in decline, his idea of home recently up-rooted. Very cloudy and scary for him. Maybe you are experiencing the same kind of dark shadows of storm clouds passing over your life right now.


That’s what this letter is about.


 

This letter was written on February 3, 2019


In the Shadow of a Cloud


Your Faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Psalm 36:5



Hi Pops,


“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” Psalm 36:5 NLT

It's cloudy today, no sunshine to be seen, a cold wind blowing. I am talking about today’s weather but I might just as well be describing various periods in my life or yours, Pops.



We often wish we could get a mega-fan and blow life’s clouds away but we all know that’s naive thinking. Clouds come with the territory, the territory called life. Believer or non-believer, clouds are going to roll in. We live in a fallen and decaying world. Clouds are part of the deal. No need to argue; clouds are.


For the person who is a Christ follower, the way they can handle clouds is dramatically different from those outside of Christ. I often wonder how non-believers handle life. Where do they go to handle the crappy clouds? The world’s way of handling clouds might be to seek escape. Sex, success, workaholism, money, more success and recognition, possessions, alcohol, anger and the list could go on and on, all these can be used to try to escape. All of these will fail in the attempt to blow the clouds away. Actually, the storm clouds will most likely get much worse if the ways of the world are your escape plan.


For the us Christ followers, we can go right to Father himself, the actual master of all clouds. What does He offer? Something extraordinary, something that is from above the clouds, from another world. His peace.


“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

Let’s remember, it is Paul writing these words. His life was filled up with rumbling and angry clouds all the way up to His execution. Why would he mislead us in this verse? He speaks Truth.


Father doesn’t promise to take our clouds away, although sometimes He does. But He does promise us His peace and I can use as much of that as possible! How about you, Dad? His kind of peace that will calm every fear and quiet every cry of helplessness in the midst of those cloudy days.


“In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences without or within our personal lives which seem to dispute the empire of God. If there were no clouds, we would not need faith. Seen apart from God, the clouds or difficulties are accidents, but by those very clouds the Spirit of God teaches us to walk by faith.” Oswald Chambers

Love you Dad.



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rodney
Oct 29, 2022

Beautiful and hopeful words thank you

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platosclosetspring
Oct 29, 2022
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You are too kind!

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