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Clouds in the Sky
We are three+ months into our residence in Texas. When the weather dropped below 100 degrees I thought I might be able to survive here!
People ask what I miss from Georgia. Besides the people (there’s nothing like friends you make when planting a church), I miss the trees. It is so green in Georgia. I miss driving the two-lane roads through a canopy of trees.
And what do I love about Waco? The sky! Maybe you know the song -
The stars at night are big and bright
Deep in the heart of Texas.
The prairie sky is wide and high
Deep in the heart of Texas.
The sky really does seem wider and higher here. Obviously not being in the middle of a forest but instead looking out on an open plain means my view of the horizon is uninterrupted. When you can see a much larger dome of the sky all at once, the sky looks huge.
And there is some scientific stuff about what happens when there is less humidity in the air. You actually see the atmosphere more cleanly. Like taking a film off your glasses. Colors are deeper, clearer. More vivid. Sunsets are gorgeous. But so are sunrises.
And the clouds. You can see them coming from a long way off, floating overhead and traveling on. These are the kinds of clouds you can try to imagine you see a shape in them.
Which reminds me of this cartoon:
Clouds also make me think of the return of Jesus.
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven,
will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:11
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thes 4:17
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him,
Rev 1:7
But you may ask, where is the snippet of wisdom in all of this? Here it is:
There’s often more healing in an extended look at the sky than in a long look inward.
Feelings. I have a lot of them. Alot of them are BIG FEELINGS. What do we do with all of them?
We try to analyze them.
When did this feeling begin? What could have caused it? Have I felt this way before? When? Why? What effect is this feeling having on me? Do I need to do something about it?
And we end up going around and around in our heads. Getting nowhere.
A long look inward rarely benefits the soul and usually makes us miserable to be around.
A long look inward sets my feelings on the throne, and I begin to define myself by my feelings.
There are times when we must look squarely at our feelings.* I just think that many times, all that is needed is a long look upward.
Seen any good clouds lately?
*Note:
There is a place for looking at our emotions and asking what they reveal about what we value and how we are responding to the world. I used to tell my girls that they needed to drag their feelings into the courtroom of God’s word and have them judged there. For this perspective, I would recommend to you the book Untangling Emotions, J. Alasdair Groves and Winston T. Smith
