My Friend In The Clouds

I look out at the maple tree, how the leaves shimmer and shake with the September breeze. The pregnant gray clouds readying to spill their bellies. I take a long inhale of that first hint of fall permeating the air and my mind trails over the past few months as if I am a pioneer trekking along a vast unknown. How do we keep going when we don't know the way? Which turn is right and what if I get lost? The ground is hard, my bones grow weary and which step will lead me further along the road?

"What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds-He does not come in clear-shining brightness."...

And I glance at the warming sun sneaking a peek between the clouds. Shading my eyes from the bright, I wonder at this grit in my eyes, at this journey that has clouded my vision and I know that without the hard you can't recognize the beautiful. I breathe again and swipe at the grit.

"Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child."

~Oswald Chambers~

The sky darkens once again, the soft rain, it brushes my shoulders and I begin to see a pattern. Lifting my gaze toward the heavens, I ask my question and wait. And it is there that I begin to pray, standing in the middle of the pause. Like a child He says, so I continue to talk to my friend, not knowing the answers to the questions, but believing the invisible has it all under control. Friends take care of friends.

Planting my feet right firm in Grace, chatting under this blanket of clouds, I open once again this book of learning. And I turn the tattered page.