The Mystery of Clouds

Good morning Change Heroines.  Today God gave me the coolest reminder of His personal desire for us.  It is from the Old Testament the book of Nahum in its first chapter especially at the third verse.  "and the clouds are the dust of His feet."Nah 1:3

Why must we look at clouds of darkness as something to be feared?  Oftentimes in the period of change that we experience we fear the clouds because they obscure the future to us.  We must continually look back.  "Why did this relationship fail?"  "Why did this job end?"  "Why was my home taken from me?"  "Why did I lose my loved one?" "Why?Why?Why?"  A good way to approach these questions is to keep looking back to try and uncover what it was that caused the clouds to appear.  Was it something in my upbringing; was it something in my personality; was it stress I experienced; was it the wrong crowd I ran with.  Looking back I suppose can be of some use to a person.  But in the wife of Lot's case - her lack of faith for the future caused her to become a pillar of salt.  Worth nothing and easily washed away when the clouds break through and the rain finally comes.  We can spend so much time asking why that we miss the great mystery in the clouds.  

If clouds are indeed the dust of His feet there are two things to remember in faith.  One is that when you are covered in dust that means that you are near the One that created it.  Think of it!  Those clouds that seem to follow you around are actually God's feet drawing near to you and covering you. Two - if the clouds as magnificent as they are are only the DUST of His feet - not even His FEET - how great how powerful must that make our God?  Could He lift the clouds? Of course He could.  So why doesn't He?  He desires that we believe in Him by faith - not by sight and not by our own understanding through books and google searches.  Certainly not in our own questioning, looking back or understanding.  God is a God of mystery and the sooner we accept that our minds can never conceive of His greatness or the clouds He puts in our lives the more we will become childlike people of faith.  Accepting the clouds and rejoicing that God who is so awesome would care enough about our mere life as to bring a cloud to teach us, to prepare us, to purify us and to ultimately bring us along to a holy and righteous path embodied by Jesus Christ Himself the second person of God.

I like this quote from Rev. Spurgeon circa 1855:

"He always does rightly; and therefore, he wants his people always to believe that he does rightly. But if he showed them that he did so, there would be no room for their faith."

Change heroines - don't become a pillar of salt.  Don't over-analyze and say "Oh this cloud is here because of this situation or that situation."  Love the cloud that provides comfort knowing that He is near to you, that He wants what is best for you, that He will purify you, and that rejoicing in the darkness is a sure way to find the everlasting Light.

**Cathy is a writer, speaker and worship leader.  For engagements contact her at 217.521.2070 or e mail at cwoolaway@yahoo.com