The other day I was flying home from a ministry trip, and when our plane took off from Washington, DC, it was dreary, rainy, and the sky was full of clouds. Up, up our plane went though, and still outside the window, it was dark and gray – you couldn't see the earth; and you couldn't see the sky. We were bumping around with it still dark and cloudy outside and then suddenly we rose above the gray and emerged into sunlight so brilliant that even the dark bank of clouds that blotted out our view of the earth was aglow with the glory of the son.
As I kept looking at the surface of that bank of clouds below me, I thought how much my life is like that. At times, everything seems so gray and dark around me, thick clouds, like a fog. My vision shuts down and my perspective gets limited, so shortsighted. I know it's the trial I'm going through that's clouding my confidence in the Lord, but still it's hard to get perspective when you can’t make heads or tails of what’s in front of you or where you’re going.
But I was reading something very encouraging the other day about clouds. Because if you look at Scripture, it was usually in a cloud that God shows up. When God gave them bread from heaven in the wilderness, his glory appeared in a cloud. When the Law was given at Sinai, again, there’s the cloud! And it was after his experience in the cloud with God that Moses’ face shone with God's glory. Then in the Holy of Holies, God appeared in the cloud upon the Mercy seat. And in the New Testament, there on the Mount of Transfiguration, God was in the brightness of the cloud. When Jesus ascended into heaven, a cloud received him out of sight of the disciples. And finally when our Savior returns, he will come in a cloud with power and great glory.
I think you can see this little study was such an encouragement to me. Because I need to remember that God often draws near to his people in a cloud – and sometimes in that “dark cloud of unknowing,” that’s when the mysteries of his ways are revealed. And something else I need to remember about those clouds. You need them if you expect to see a rainbow! And the Lord reminds me that the rainbow signifies his promise.
Oh, friend, it is so difficult to live a life clouded by foggy, dark circumstances. But as we look up at the desolate clouds that shadow our lonely lives, searching out his rainbow, we just might discover the near and sweet presence of the Lord himself… and discover him in a way that never would have been possible without those clouds. If today things seem dark and cloudy, take heart. If there were no cloud, how should we know his rainbow?
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JONI AND FRIENDS
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