Jeff Adams

Here I sit waiting for another snow event. We have yet to have a major snow storm, but several nice little December snows made things white to remind us that winter is here. This is the time of year when we can go for days on end without seeing the sun.

I was thinking about winter dreariness this morning as I read this passage from Psalms.

The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. Psalm 97:1-6

Here, and several times in scripture, we see the figure of God’s glory hidden by clouds. This motif is prominent in the Exodus account as Moses ascends cloud-draped Mount Sinai to meet with God. I think especially of Job’s words.

He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. Job 26:9

I find such biblical language intriguing. Even in ancient times astronomers observed the cloud-like groupings of stars against the black backdrop of the greater cosmos. For example, to this day scientists speak of the two Magellanic Clouds to refer to a couple of irregular dwarf galaxies near our own Milky Way.

No one can measure the greatness of God. No one has ever seen the fullness of God’s glory. Whatever that glory may be, it lies beyond our comprehension on the other side of those clouds, both cosmic and conceptual.

Earlier this month, just as the first significant snow of the year began, I was at the airport sitting in a plane on the tarmac waiting to take off. It was shortly before noon, but the low ceiling of clouds and the blowing snow cast an appreciable darkness. I heard a distinctive roar I had not heard since last winter. Looking out the porthole window I could see the deicing fluid streaming down the side of the plane’s fuselage. Rumbling down the runway, the big silver nose finally lifted upward. With such steady snow, the plane’s wheels had barely left the ground when the earth simply dissolved into the grayish-white, soupy sky.

Suddenly, we entered another world, a different existence. Leaving the dreariness behind, we had pierced the cloudy barrier and entered that place where the sun is always shinning.

I want to remember this experience the next time life clouds up. Sometimes, I feel suspended in the midst of perpetual dreariness, or simply lost and can’t see the ground beneath me. What I want to remember is that no matter how dark the day, God in all his glory is just on the other side of the ominous clouds where the Sun always shines.