Do You Ever Look at the Clouds?

Do you ever look at the clouds? I have never really noticed them much. But this summer it seems like every time I am outside the clouds are just gorgeous. They truly take my breath away. It’s as if when God was making the world he was creating a giant ice cream sundae. He’d heaped the bowl full of ice cream and covered it with more delicious toppings then you could imagine. Then, just when it all looked too good to be true, he added the whipped cream. And not just the kind that you squirt out of the bottle that’s so full of air it barely has a taste. The clouds are more like the kind that you spoon out in heaping delicious dollops that wreath the bowl with their creamy delightfulness.

I think that part of the reason I’ve been noticing the clouds lately is that I’ve spent the past year living on a mountain. This is a little odd because when you are on a mountain you are surrounded by the clouds, I have been literally living in them. And yet, it wasn’t until I was driving home from school that I began to notice them. I think that I was almost in West Virginia when a swirl of lavender grey framed with shining gold caught my eye. My heart leapt and I knew that this cloud was a gift, a blessing. The cloud seemed to follow me the rest of the way home, sometimes gleaming in the sunbeams, sometimes simply a quiet haze of soft color. As I was crossing the Susquehanna the sun was setting. Its rays lit my little cloud on fire and it became a blaze of pink and orange in the evening sky. I could barely tear my eyes away to drive. Such beauty is in the clouds and I had never even noticed.

On my mountain I was so surrounded by clouds that I ceased to perceive their beauty. I had to step back, become removed to really see them again. And now that I am seeing them I am amazed at how I could ever have grown accustomed to them. Each one of them is a special gift from the Creator and my weak eyes sees them as commonplace, ordinary. This is such an accurate picture of how I receive God’s blessings. He has surrounded me with them. Blessings are being poured over me ceaselessly. And yet I hardly notice.

This past month I have been looking for a summer job. I don’t really mind working but until recently it never occurred to me to actually consider a job a blessing. A job was just something I needed, something that I’d always had before and something that I rather assumed that I would always be able to get. But a month of frustrating and seemingly fruitless applications changed my perspective completely. For a short time God withheld that blessing from me and it wasn’t until that time that I realized what a beautiful and good gift it truly is to be able to work. And the most beautiful thing about it all is that withholding this gift for a time was another blessing. He was simply making me wait so that he could offer me a gift  far better than how I originally planned to spend my summer. His blessings are beyond my comprehension.

And so when I think of the phrase “count your blessings” it strikes me how absurd it truly is to even contemplate numbering the gifts I have been showered with. They are so numerous and precious. From the wag of a dog’s tail to the joyful time spent with a roommate; from the laugh of a little girl to the smile of each of my dear friends; from the gift of a job to the clouds that wreath the dusky sky… These blessings, so abundantly given, fill my heart with awe and wonder at my Father’s goodness. He loves me. This thought fills my heart with a rejoicing which overflows. A rejoicing that makes my feet want to dance.