Fresh Faith February
“He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.” ( Job 26:8)
The winds of Winter are usually so much colder in Missouri. Yesterday it was in the high 60's! Springtime on the last day of January. The children played outside in short sleeves and even some bare feet in the sandbox. One was stung by a bee who must have decided to come out and start busying herself with Springtime chores!! We are not complaining over the temperate winds and the happy sun brightening our faces!!
And the Clouds! Oh, my.
“Day after day they pour forth speech.”
Did you know THIS about clouds?
How much does a cloud weigh?
A typical cumulus cloud (the most common cloud) is about 1 cubic kilometer in volume and 2 km above ground. Air density is estimated to be at about 1.007 kg/m3. The clouds (water droplets) are less dense and come close to 1.003 kg/m3 (which is also why they float). There are estimated to be 1,000,000 cubic meters of droplets in an average cumulus cloud.
A cumumus cloud weighs over a billion kilograms
The weight can be calculated using this equation (density by volume by a factor):
1.003 kg/m3x 1,000x 1 km3 = 1,003,000,000 kg
Which is over a billion kilograms of droplets or close to 2.2 billion pounds.
Assuming a blue whale is close to 160 (160,000 kg) tones in weight, a cumulus cloud weighs as much as 6,268.75 blue whales!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????????!!!!!!
And, Yet they don't drop on my head???!!!
How GOOD God is to keep them there, displaying His glory, and His Creative Handiwork that dazzles my eyes, makes my imagination soar. How GOOD He is to build up moisture to replenish a parched world's thirst. To hold up the clouds with protective strength and yet to be so gentle, so Fatherly and tender.
To have them empty out in a way that does no harm but gently washes our upturned faces.
One of Richard's and my favorite things to love doing with our family is to lie on our backs on a blanket on our lawn, perhaps with an arm round one of the kids and look up at the clouds. We imagine...and in just a moment we SEE... pictures and stories and watch them change shape into other newer stories romping and playing,warring, galloping across the sky...
As a little girl I made a request--I would have said, a DEAL with the Lord. That one day I could PLAY with Him in the clouds. Have you ever wanted that? To jump and to leap through wide open spaces and land softly on them? To dive through them perhaps like waves? To take a ride next to Jesus in ALL that majestic Beauty?
Oh wow!! it REALLY gets my heart going!! I REMEMBER the first time, as a little girl on a Passenger plane heading to Switzerland, sitting in my window seat... and first witnessing as we broke through that first layer of cloud cover and to SEE what God had in store up there...the glory of what God has created in solely for His good pleasure .. {.for who else SEEs up there... above where even the birds fly?}
That's when I knew, that I knew why clouds had always moved my heart...Oh, yes, God, we were going to play up there one day, you and me, God on our own special date...And ever since, it has been the same,
Coming home to the sky over Washington D.C. ---how clean and calm it is--how PURE above all the deliberations and life in that grand city underneath--
Looking from cloud level at the patchwork quilting of the farmlands of America as I came in to my college town...
Peering down in a trip to Holland upon all the intimidating, watery expanse of Atlantic ocean water reflecting all that glory back to the sky...
Coming in to the tropics of Florida alongside the afternoon rainmakers, rolling in besides me...
and one of my ultimate favorites...
The African sky...
Which everyone should really know...is just as beautiful and stately in magnificence from the ground as it is from a sky viewpoint--It is the crown jewel in my heart of cloud collections on this Blue Earth.
And ALWAYS as i look up,
I am brought into awareness of the one who says He
“Rides on the Clouds”
Searching for...the ones who are
Searching for Him.
The One who creates objects in the sky as HEAVY as 6,000 plus Whales is commanding them as His ride...His chariot of the sky...to use as He searches for those
“Whose hearts are turned toward Him.”
See me, God.
Find me.
Faith ever searches for the God who CAN be found.
And when He comes...He is looking too...for the one who is looking for Him.
Simple but true!
And how do I find Him? By "looking up". By expecting that what He says about Himself in the Bible is truly TRUE. .That He is looking to be enough for me ....In every part of my life. And that my powerful but gentle Father is not going to squish me with Revelation of Himself. When He comes, it is often a showing of Himself as glorious as the white clouds, bright enough for me to squint up in wonder at all of this Glory--knowing there's even MORE to find in His higher places. He comes and attends to my questions and needs with gentle rains. And though He could be one I could fear with ALL that power and weight of glory and holiness...He ministers Life to me---a rain fall at a time--cleansing me, refreshing me,restoring me in such a restrained, loving manner.
I believe that King, God hides Himself so that He MAY BE FOUND.
And it will take a princely heart to find Him...
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2)
If you have ever played hide and seek with children this is easier to understand. What parent or caregiver hides themselves from earnest little searchers in hopes to stay hidden away for keeps?
No! The joys and the heart-thumping part of the game is in the FINDING.
And what do we find?
Himself.
And HE will be enough. Jesus IS enough. For ALL of Life.
Over the last 37 years of loving Him, and even quite recently I have found that what He says is true. IS true. It can be found and tested out. Tried and relied upon. And that so much more awaits me in Life in Him than I have ever dared to dream about before.
This wind and these clouds above me, absolutely pregnant with moisture, remind me of another wind that blows across my heart in this New Year. "Tell the stories" I sense on my heart. It is time to share-- to tell of the ways that God has "broken in" to our "normal" and made it more... How He has made Himself known, REAL to me personally.
In my heart
In my relationships
With my children and for them directly
In healings
In hearing His voice and being His friend.
In miraculous provisions...
"Well, that's all fine and good and prettied up, Gillian, but you DON"T....you can't know MY LIFE."
"Jesus may be ENOUGH for you...but, really, what about my sickness that has gone on for years?...or healing for my heart from miscarriage?...or my child's struggles?...or that situation that I do not think could EVER be restored...there's just SO much water under the bridge...and its been such a long journey...what about our finances?...have you SEEN my CHECKBOOK?...and my energy levels?...have you ever felt so tired you could not bear the thought of another day's weight?...What about that? Take that...tell me about THESE things!!..."
Oh, friend, come and sit on my blanket on this Springtime lawn for a bit this month. I hope you consider looking up with me...to consider how faith grows and asks and connects with God's heart...and brings His amazing gifts into our lives. It is so real. I have LIVED it and am JUST at the beginning of all this wonder. I'd love to share some of my stories of how God has met me, with you this month...and while I do know they are not your stories..God has promised that He has no partiality...that what He has done for me...He can do for you...
I will start the stories tomorrow. :)
Blessings this first February day of 2012. I pray for you:
“Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring." ( Hosea 6:3)
You won't mind getting a little wet, will you?
Fresh Faith to you this month and for always,
Love, Gillian
Source for Cloud info.: http://greenearthfacts.com/weather/how-much-does-a-cloud-weigh/
Source for Cloud info.: http://greenearthfacts.com/weather/how-much-does-a-cloud-weigh/
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