Appreciation of Clouds

I love clouds! I use to tease my mother because she would use a whole roll of film just taking pictures of clouds. I know she looks down & chuckles every time I take 1600 cloud pictures! Praise God for digital photos :) Clouds are so unique & not a single one has a twin. The clouds give texture & life to an otherwise bland blue canvas called the sky.

I am not saying that the clear blue sky is not beautiful - it is beautiful all in and of itself. But add some clouds and it's as if it comes alive in a new way! It's like the clouds reveal the splendor that was there in such vibrant majesty! Clouds come and go as nature wills them to. Sometimes they bring rain, snow, hail - sometimes they simply bring covering from the sun. Whatever their purpose may be - they have a purpose.

I move about my day sometimes on automatic pilot - not thinking to much about what comes next because life moves in a fairly regular routine. Occasionally, (sometimes more then I would like) the storm pounces. It can knock me down. It can be a nuisance and mess up the routine. Sometimes I find myself shaking my fist demanding answers - demanding the whys of this disruption. I want what I think is my right - to know the answers AND that things be put back in the right order so I can get on with the routine - the mundane.

Then the Creator so gently & graciously (firmly at times) says,

"Were you there when time began?

Did you enclose the oceans telling them to stay in their boundaries?

Have you ever told the sun to come up or tell it to go down?

Did you put the clouds in the sky?

I am God - You are not.

Do you trust me enough that even in this chaos I will still be in control?

Do YOU trust ME to make beauty out of this mess?

Sit back and watch the beauty that is hidden in these clouds

Rest in the full knowledge that there will be so much good come from this storm

Your only response will be giving Me praise & living in the freedom I so much want for you."

If I could look at life's 'storms' with the same depth of appreciation and awe as I look at the clouds in the sky maybe - just maybe the storms wouldn't be so bad. And I could remember the importance isn't so much in the clouds but the Creator.