THE CLOUDS COME AND GO. HE REMAINS CONSTANT!
“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).
It there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! In turbulent times, when the clouds of trouble cover the sky and you feel your life is socked-in for an endless storm, watch for a break in the clouds, a ray of sun, and the rainbow in the rain. When life dishes out what seems to be unfair or prolonged suffering, we begin to wonder, “Where is God in all of this? If He is sovereign of all, and nothing happens without His knowledge and permission, why does He allow, not only the clouds, but the vicious storms that go with them?” Where is our hope to life’s pain and suffering?—the answer is Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ is coming back in the clouds to earth a second time to rule and to reign. The first time He came He was an infant in Bethlehem’s manger, surrounded by cattle, sheep, and donkeys. The next time He comes, He will come in the clouds of heaven, mounted on a white horse, surrounded by His holy angels, and followed by the saints of the church to rule and reign for one thousand years. Romans 14:11 says, “Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” Comfort each other with these words.
Coming with clouds echoes the promise of Daniel: The Son of Man will come with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13)—not ordinary clouds but clouds of glory. In the Old Testament, God often manifested Himself in an energized, blazing light, called the Shekinah or glory cloud. No one could see it fully and live (Exodus 33:20) so it had to be veiled. But when Christ returns, the glory will be completely visible.
Nahum (1:3) so long ago reminded us that the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. Yes, He is everywhere present. He is everywhere active and at work in the world. Very much alive, He is aware of all that transpires upon the planet and in the lives of its people. Most of us sort of subscribe to this vague idea with mental assent. Precious few people consider the concept important enough to invest their confidence in the omnipresence of Christ. They refuse to have faith in our Father who is actually at work in every event that touches our lives. They do not sincerely believe God’s Spirit is everywhere active. Look up, child of God, Jesus is coming in the clouds—are you ready to meet the Lord in the clouds?
Have you noticed that many times dark clouds cross the horizon of our lives? Do you find yourself asking, “Can God be in all of this? Is He really here? Does He truly care?” We ask these questions in times of great stress or emotional turmoil. It is one of the tragic truths that strikes with great impact when we see men and women surrounded with excruciating sorrow or enveloped in overwhelming grief. It is as if suddenly they feel abandoned by God. In the surging storms of sadness or darkness that sweep over the soul, hope vanishes, faith flees and good will evaporates away.
Often clouds mount several thousand feet into the sky—like they do in our lives—one surmounting difficulty upon another. They overwhelm us and cause us to forget the promises of God—He will never leave us nor forsake us. God has permitted us to live in a free world in which tragedies can happen They are often simply the distressing, heartbreaking result of human actions and choices—ours, and those of others, God, too suffers with us. Have you ever had a breach in your relationship with God? The idea that we might be angry with God is scary, so we suppress it. We just don’t feel close to Him, and what seems on the surface to be merely benign neglect of our relationship with God is often a camouflage for passive resistance. And what do we do with the anger? We turn it on ourselves and try to hurt God by hurting ourselves!
God always has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. The clouds are the dust in His feet. He, the Risen One, the Living God, is here present in our pain. We must keep it all in perspective—Jesus is on His way in the clouds! He is at work in the whirlwind of our despair, moving behind the scenes in the dark clouds of our chaos and confusion.
Only He will or can bring beauty out of it all. Only He can bring help to our helplessness. Only He can restore joy for our sorrow. There is no other word of consolation or cheer that I can bring to those in dark places. Untold millions of individuals in their hour of sorrow have found faith and courage and calm strength coming to them from God in the midst of the storm. There is the subsequent result of all the storm and clouds and wild winds that sweep about us. At the hour they seem so tempestuous. But at a later date their benefits are clearly seen. Only through the clouds and mists and surging storms does moisture percolate through the soil to feed the mountain springs and replenish the roaring rivers and fill the lakes anew. Out of what appears to be death, new life emerges.
Clouds constantly change—sometimes moment by moment as they move across the skies. All is change. Life is ever in flux. Nothing on earth remains constant. God does not change. “Forever, O Lord, Thou art faithful.” Winds blow, storms subside. He is ever by our side. He and He alone make all things new—both in this life and in the wider life yet to come beyond the skies. For that we can bless His wondrous name forever and forever!
The clouds represent the dark times that God permits while we come to grips with what is happening to us. We cannot deny God’s blunt statement that there will be clouds and He will send them: “When I bring a cloud over the earth.” Many times the word, “cloud” is talking about waiting, and yes we are waiting for Jesus to come in the clouds. And remember, sometimes the cloudy, stormy times force us to stop in our mad race toward our self-fashioned goals. “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God” (Psalm 62:5-7). The mystics talk about the cloud of unknowing and the dark night of the soul that can happen at high noon. It is during these cloudy, dark times that we see ourselves as we are and admit how desperately we need God. We struggle with the mind-stretching truth that God made His most painful choice when He gave us free will, knowing full well how we would misuse our freedom.
It’s when the sky of life is covered with clouds that we do our hard thinking about what we have done with our freedom: what we’ve done to ourselves and to others. It’s the time when we get in touch with our need for forgiveness. It’s also the time when we identify the hurts and wrongs that others have done to us; then we are confronted with how difficult it is to really forgive. While the clouds still hang heavy, we wrestle with the realization that life very often isn’t fair. How could it be, in a deranged world where so few play by God’s rules of righteousness and justice? But then we must question our own shallow understanding of fairness: a happy, easy, problem-free, successful life? Isn’t prosperity our divine right? Not if we consider the women and men of the Bible and Christian history! Some of the greatest of them endured inexplicable suffering and knew God more intimately because of it than those who indemnified God to produce what they wanted, when they wanted it.
The clouds will cover the sky until we can identify our own suffering. Sometimes it’s physical pain: other times, guilt or grief; still other times, emotional hurts, lurking memories, worry over others, anxiety about the future. When storm clouds bring me to a realization of how much I need God, I cry out to Him, telling Him that more than anything or anyone else I long for Him to reach across my imagined breach and tell me what He will do to give me a fresh start. The clouds of doubt, fear, and anxiety break; the sun shines through again. Sometimes God actually produces a rainbow in the sky, but most often it’s a rainbow in my heart. They I know that He has reached across the breach. It’s not all blue skies afterward—the clouds don’t vanish immediately. The storm, though, is over; the heavy black clouds that once blocked the sun slowly being to disappear, sprinkling their last little showers. Now we know that good things are coming. And remember, it’s the final raindrops after the storm that serves the sun in producing the rainbow! Stop and look up child of God, Jesus will soon be coming in the clouds! Even so, Come Lord Jesus!
