Soaring in the Clouds!

'Heaven is my home, I'll get there 'by and by'.

Till I get there, I'll be workin' towards that 'great gig in the sky'!

You've prob'ly heard these words before, maybe even tried to guess the score;
But the score was written before time began, and though many have guessed at it, no one can!

Men are like clouds, they're chock full of rain, but try as they might, it's all done in vain!
The wind, as the Spirit, blows it's powerful gale, and so we know that He will always prevail!

The Spirit, like the wind, blows where He will, and like it or not, His purpose fulfill!
We always complain, when things go awry, but all is done well, in 'the sweet bye and bye'!

Blown by the Spirit, men are but clouds, and will they or won't they, His will always prevails!
Like it or not, we're blown by the Wind, and ever we know it, He's always our friend!

The Scriptures will tell us that clouds signal judgment, and that's universally true,
But when He cried 'It is finished', the judgment was passed; Adam was dead, we're into the Blue!

Many people ( okay, just a few ) have asked me over the years, why I photograph the clouds so much. In fact, one friend asked me just the other day what it was about clouds that attracts me to them, do they hold some significance for me? 

I really hadn't thought much about it lately, but the answer to my friend's question might best be found in these words: clouds remind me of people, but they don't talk back; clouds are be beautiful, and with the help of the wind, they're always changing! 

Clouds serve to remind us of many things, and one of those is that though it is true that, as David wrote in Psalm 104:3, 'He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind', He no longer rides them in judgment ( Ezekiel 30:3 ). He still, as in Deuteronomy 33:26, 'rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds', but we realize now, through the Revelation of His Son and His indwelling Spirit, that we are the clouds which He rode! It was and is through us, His people, His mighty ( yet weak ) creation, that He accomplishes His almighty will! 

We often do not like to acknowledge that in all things, His will is accomplished, His will is done! We like to split God's will into His revealed will ( as revealed in Scripture ) and His permissive will ( as revealed in the evil that men do ). I do not believe that we can or should try to do this, for in doing so, we ( vainly ) put  limitations on our Creator that are just not there! Who are we to say that the Creator of the universe would or would not do things in any certain way? Our God is the same God that commanded Israel ( under the 'first' covenant-Hebrews 8:7 ) to perpetrate genocide in the Land of Canaan ( ? ), the same jealous God who would kill a man ( Uzza-I Chronicles 13:9-11 ) who was only trying to help ( ?), and the very same God who told Moses, 'Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death' ( Exodus 19:12b )! Though people, like clouds, may be blown by the Spirit ( wind ) and thus 'changed', the Spirit itself, as the wind, does not change in essence, but wholly follows Its own course!

Let us soar as the 'clouds' that we are!

Charles Haddon Shank