Cloudy with a chance of sunshine

Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.  (Psalm 103:1-2 NLT)

Has anyone else realized how tremendously easy it is to forget some of the good stuff God does for us just because there is a load of pretty ugly stuff happening right now? It is easy for us to forget their is a blue lining just behind those storm clouds because all we can really see is the cloud cover. I once heard it said that clouds can come to bring rain, give a break from the sun's intense rays, or just to add a little different hue to the sunset or sunrise in your life. If clouds can change the perspective we have so much, I wonder if we should learn to appreciate them a little more.

As a child I remember laying in the grass, gazing lazily up at the clouds passing overhead, and making believe we could make out various shapes of animals, cars, trucks, and the like. Most kids do this at some point or another - but we somehow lose the enjoyment of such "luxuries" as adults. We forget what it is like to just sit and ponder - to imagine and create from what is before us. It may be our busy schedules, over-complicated lives, or the constant pursuit of social media feeds, but we have lost the moments of just pondering.

It was Christmas day and I was gazing out the window toward the horizon. In rather short order, clouds were building over the mountain tops and they were pretty serious clouds. They carried rain, snow, or something big. They never made their way over my home, but they did carry a whole lot of that white stuff up in the northern country. What dawned on me is how often we consider the clouds in life and either anticipate what they might bring or hope for them to go away because we only want the clear blue skies.

To anticipate what might come is okay, but to focus entirely on the hope of what might come "from" the clouds may not always be the most sensible. Most of the clouds I observe in life just block the sun or keep me from seeing the blue sky a while - they don't carry much rain. Yet, even these clouds have a purpose - although not for rain, they provide a beauty all their own. If we always had blue skies, would we ever appreciate beauty of the painted sky filled with all manner of clouds? If we always saw clouds as having just one purpose, would we stop to consider how much contribute to the changing in the color of the leaves, or the perception of the sun's intensity?

We may not have asked for the present clouds in our lives, but when we gaze into them, considering their path and their purpose, we might just not dread them so much. We might actually begin to allow something of beauty to be created from their passing - for all clouds pass. Just sayin!