Clouds can be terrifying things.
Take the time Rick and I were on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. We had driven maybe 20 miles from our bed and breakfast to Cheticamp, a town on the coast of the St. Lawrence Gulf. We lingered over a dinner of fresh fish, and emerged from the restaurant only to discover that it was now night and a dense fog had settled, the worst of the pea soup variety. The cloud of fog was so thick that we could only see a yard or two in front of the car as we traveled back on roads that were unfamiliar to us. If there were street signs, we couldn’t see them. The very, very long ride to our B & B was nerve wrecking.
Then there was the time on the sabbatical that we were traveling back to camp after a long day of walking the trail. We drove over a ridge in western PA where there was a line of wind turbines. We stopped so that Rick could take photos. While there, great thunder clouds started building. Soon several deeply dark ones were advancing toward us. We quickly got in the truck, wheels raising dust on the dirt road down the mountain. We hoped to reach the campsite and lower the awning on the trailer before the wind got its twisting hands on it. We climbed the last ridge and drove into the campground just as the rain began pounding and the wind started whipping at the trailer.
High up there on the ridge, the eastern continental divide ran right under our feet. The thunder cloud, which had deftly skimmed over the highlands to the west, slammed right into us. Lightening was all around. For ten minutes we were in the bowels of this thunder cloud, jumping at the crash of thunder and tensing for the tree limbs to crash onto us until, finally, the cloud moved off the ridge and over the eastern valleys.
It might be the danger of lightening, the fierceness of wind, the scary sound of thunder making us jump, or our panic when not able to see ahead of us, but at certain times and in certain places clouds are frightening. How many of you can remember a terrifying cloud experience?
So is that why the cloud metaphor threads its way through biblical stories? After all, God’s activity is not something to take lightly. There are often clouds in the biblical stories at times when people are encountering God’s presence: the cloud protecting the people of Israel being chased by the Egyptian army, the cloud thundering and covering Mt. Sinai when Moses received the ten commandments, and the cloud settling on Solomon’s temple at its dedication. Then there is this Sunday’s account (Luke 9) of the three disciples seeing Jesus’ shining presence on the mountain, Moses and Elijah standing there, the thundering voice of God and, you guessed it, a thick cloud.
Why a cloud? Maybe to convey, similar to a storm cloud, the terrifying presence of God’s power. Maybe also to convey, like a thick cloud of fog where we can’t see a thing, that there is also so much about God that we cannot see or know. There is no way we have all the answers to the God questions. Build little tents to hang onto God…really, Peter!
As the apostle Paul said so well (1 Corinthians 13): for now, we only know in part; now we see, as it were, in a mirror dimly. There is much about God and God’s purpose for the world that we definitely do not know and do not understand. Why do we think we have it all figured out? Why do we act like we’re right and everyone else is wrong? Between the terrifying power of God and the inscrutable wisdom of God, the metaphor of being in a cloud isn’t such a bad one for disciples to heed. Now add to that thick cloud mix the incredible love of God in the face of Christ, and maybe we would do well to remain absolutely tongue-tied for awhile. Listen to him.
Daisy says
“Clouds can be terrifying things.”
Yes, terrifying and fascinating all at once. I want to look and hide my eyes at the same time. I had a dream about terrifying clouds and a tornado that , upon awakening, made me think that it represented God.
Actually, wind turbines scare me as well. So do giant flags…
Mich
Elaine Dent says
Mich, Ezekiel would resonate with your terrifying and fascinating cloud dream. He “saw” the word of the Lord; check out chapter 1 and how visual it is.
Perhaps you would not have enjoyed it when we went back to the same wind turbine spot this summer. Lo and behold, they were dismantling the propeller, taking the massive thing off by cranes and ropes and setting it down in the field without hitting anything…almost. Great fodder for dreams.
Daisy says
“Great fodder for dreams.”
Ha! Most definitely. 🙂