MEDITATIONS AND MEMORIES

I was thinking about clouds yesterday. When I see clouds my imagination runs wild. As a child I could get lost inthe clouds. I remember watching the clouds pass by and all the images I could find in the clouds. A face, birds, castles, angels, all sort of images. I just enjoyed watching the clouds float by. Guess I still enjoy a beautiful day with lots of white fluffy clouds. But when I try to paint a cloud I can never get it right. An artist once told me that the sky was hardest thing to paint. So I guess I will just enjoy God's beautiful art! Sometimes, though, the clouds turn to gray and then black. That means a rain storm is on the way. Then we have a gully washer. In case you have never heard of a gully washer - it rains so hard and heavy until things that are way down in the ditches start floating down the ditch. Things surface that you did not know were there. We have to get "things" out of the ditch so the water can flow. I thought of how the Lord had to permit a dark cloud to come in our Christian life. So dark that we can hardly find our way. Sometimes He has to send a gully washer to let us see things surfacing. Maybe we need to make some changes in our walk with Him. What? Changes in our Christian life? Aren't we suppose to be walking with Him and doesn't He lead us day by day? So why change? Aren't all of us human? Do we not sometimes get our priorities out of order? Could there be some hidden thing that the Lord wants to bring to the surface? That's a lot of questions, is't it? Just put another one down! I'll try and stay away from questions and make a few statements. Dark times most certainly come in a Christians life! Times when we feel so alone, times when we feel sorrow and wonder if our heart will ever quit aching, times of unexpected physical conditions that we thought in a million years would never happen to us. How well I remember somes of those times. Did the sun shine again? Oh yes - for our Lord said He would never leave us nor forsake us. I'm so thankful for His promises. There have been clouds of disappointment! Clouds of discouragement and doubt! Times when friends failed and turn on us. But I'm glad to be able to report to you that our Savior was right there with us. Clouds of loneliness without a friend to understand. But what a Friend we have in Jesus! I just feel like bragging on Him for He is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother! Behind every cloud we need to remember that the sun is always shining. And the darker the night , the brighter will be the light when we walk with Him. We have a very small bathroom night light. If we turn it on in the daytime we don't notice it at all. Turn it on when to starts to get dark, we can see it on but mixed with whatever daylight may be left it barely shines any light at all. But it is still there, doing it's job. A few hours later in the darkness of night ~ it sure shines bright. Just a little light dispells the darkness. That's how our Christian life is. The night may be dark, but the darker it gets, the brighter the Light will shine, in the dark, and as we walk in the dark we will never lose our way if we walk with the Savior. Are you going through a dark place in your Christian life? Look for the Light! It is there.