Russell - Clouds

Beautiful, sunny days are awesome. Who doesn’t love a sunny day, but what about storms and clouds? Storms, we usually try to avoid or take shelter from. Even the largest ocean going vessels try to avoid the biggest storms by going around them or seeking safety in a harbor. But storms also bring essential moisture inland to where we all live. Without storms we would all die.Clouds are different. We rarely seek shelter from a cloud. Mostly we think they just block out the sunshine. On a hot day clouds often bring a much needed respite from the sun’s burning rays. This morning, on the Sunday morning after my mother’s funeral, clouds played a much more significant role.Following a long, family tradition at our gatherings we held a Sunrise Testimony Meeting along the banks of the Snake River. The week prior, after learning of her passing, Laura and I scouted out a location for this service. We were there a little after 7:30 at sunrise on a beautiful, cloudless morning as the sun rose in its full glory from behind the hills that make up the horizon. Immediately the beauty of the riverside setting in the low light conditions changed under the glare of the bright rising sun. So we made certain to schedule the service at 7:00 so we could enjoy the low light conditions as long as possible during the service.On the day of the service, as I pulled out of the garage in the darkness a little before 7:00 I noticed that there was a big cloud bank on the eastern horizon delaying a bit the early morning light and I saw a couple of rain drops hit the windshield. I mumbled to myself, “Well, so much for the sunrise.” Then I remembered that clouds often cause the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets and maybe we would get lucky this morning.It was an act of faith to set up chairs, facing east, along the riverbank in the darkness at the park. It did not look promising. After some muffins and hot chocolate it was beginning to get light as the meeting began. Thankfully the cloud cover had kept most of the night’s chill away and there was no breeze. The river was gorgeous in the low light. We watched a goose leave its island nest and swim out into the current and disappear around a bend and several large fish jumped clear out of the water. Sunrise still did not look promising and I was beginning to think we would never get to see it today from behind the thick cloud bank but there was brightening thin spot in the clouds that held out a ray of hope.

As the minutes ticked on and testimonies were shared the thin spot grew brighter and brighter until it had a beautiful, bright, jagged, silver lining all around the edge of the opening. That would have been enough to reward the effort but it was not to be. The lining got brighter and brighter until the sun was casting a big beam of rays on the nearby clouds and then the sun peeked through the opening and then continued to rise, casting a bright reddish-orange beam of light reflecting off of the water pointing right at the rising sun. It was glorious, and bright, and brief! As quickly as it came up, a few minutes later it began to set again, in reverse, disappearing as it rose behind a bigger and darker cloud higher in the sky. That was the last we would see of the sun that morning. What returned were the beautiful low-light conditions along the river. We enjoyed them immensely throughout the remainder of the meeting with many analogies being made of the inspiring show in the sky. Mom’s life was like that. She existed for a long time. Briefly lit up our sky in all her glory and now was gone again leaving us to bask in the effects of her light.

We should all thank God for the clouds in our lives. I did.