I’m fascinated with clouds, so much so that it is not uncommon for me to stand at my patio door with my neck craned upwards for several long minutes to watch the formations dance about and change shapes as they seem to compete for airspace and bragging rights for who’s the biggest and the best. I have even placed my phone outside to record the sky as a time-lapse video, and that’s excluding the mini gallery of photos I take if the clouds are especially majestic.

The other day as the sun was setting, I watched with interest as the fireball tucked in behind a large grey wall of cloud, its rays illuminating the behemoth mass from behind and creating a beautiful rim of sunlight with the sun still showing in a dazzle of pure white light and dramatic lens flare. It was as though I had placed a star filter in front of my camera lens, which, incidentally, I did not! See, I am truly a cloud nerd, and yes, my neck got sore from looking up!

Watching the spectacle of light and colour, it wasn’t long before I began to think about Jesus and how incredible it would be to witness the Saviour in all His glory as He comes back to earth out of the heavens, His light as bright as the sun. The mere wonder of that moment gives me goosebumps!

“’Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see him, and even those who pierced him’; and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’ So it shall be! Amen.” (Revelation 1:7 NIV)

And then it says this in the next verse.

“’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8 NIV)

When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission in the book of Acts, chapter 1, He told them, it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set. Jesus spoke about them receiving power when the Holy Spirit comes and how they will become Jesus’s witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Here’s the cool part, as if what Jesus told his followers wasn’t cool enough already!

“After he said this, he was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go to heaven.’” (Acts 1:9, 10, 11 NIV)

So, my friend—the next time you look to the sky and observe a stunning array of clouds, turn your thoughts towards Jesus and to how much He loves you, and that one day soon, He will come back with the clouds. Then, of course, grab your camera and click away!

Paul Smyth