Forever Looking Up

“Once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up” Leonardo Da Vinci

The clouds here have been especially pretty the past month or so. We have had many days with brilliant blue skies filled with puffy white clouds. Sometimes it looks as if God has emptied a huge bag of giant cotton balls from His heavenly throne. Days like that always make me think of my girl.

When she was ten years old, we let our daughter change bedrooms and choose her own decor. She picked out white bedroom furniture, befitting a young girl and settled on sky blue walls covered in clouds.

I am not a painter, so we found someone who could paint realistic looking clouds on her walls. My daughter and I spent days taking photos of the precise type of clouds she wanted.

She didn’t want the wispy Cirrus clouds or elongated Stratus clouds. Not the towering Cumulonimbus or dark Nimbostratus. It had to be Cumulus, the white puffy clouds you drew over a house and trees in first-grade art work.

She kept her cloudy room for a few years, until her style became a bit more bohemian.

Clouds are pretty special. They can tell us about the weather. They can bring shade on a bright, sunny day. And who hasn’t spent time looking for shapes in the clouds?

Clouds are mentioned in the Bible a little over 150 times.

God set his bow in the clouds as an everlasting covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:13)
The children of Israel followed a pillar of cloud by day as the Lord led them out of Egypt (Exodus 13:21)
The Lord came to Moses in a thick cloud on Mt. Sinai and gave him the 10 Commandments (Exodus 19:9 and beyond)
In many Old Testament passages, the presence of God is represented by a cloud, particularly in or near the tabernacle or temple
Elijah saw a small cloud in the distance that would end a three-year drought (1 Kings18:44)
Peter, James and John heard the voice of God coming from the cloud saying “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him”! (Matthew 17:5)
Jesus ascended into the clouds and will return the same way (Acts 1:11)

When I see clouds in the sky, I often think of my daughter and her cloud-covered bedroom. Sometimes, when I’m in a jet flying above the clouds, I imagine heaven. But, a beautiful cloud filled sky will also turn my thoughts toward Jesus and his return. How about you? Are you also “forever looking up”?

“You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”Acts 1:11