After a rain storm happens I have been noticing how the sky is nice and clear, and the cloud patterns are gorgeous! One day, while driving to work, I was looking at the dark gray clouds contrasting against some white fluffy clouds in the distance, and the bright blue sky behind them. I thought to myself, "The clouds are like my sorrow." I looked at the cars driving through the intersection, the people running, people walking their dogs, and the kids walking to school. Life was bustling away. The gorgeous sky, and the clouds hanging in the background seemed hardly noticed.
The clouds hang there in the background, and the busy life happens in the foreground. But as I looked at that clear blue sky behind the clouds I thought, "The blue sky is God. He encompasses it all. He is expansive. He covers everything. And even though my sorrow hangs in the background, God is behind my sorrows." And as I studied the clouds more, through the weeks to follow, I thought about the sun that shines. The sun is God's Son, Jesus. His light cuts through the dark clouds. He shows forth God's love. His light reflects on the clouds of sorrow. Like the clouds, I reflect Christ. If I am living life like I should be. The more I reflect Christ the more beautiful I am, and the more Christ makes something beautiful out of my sorrow.
Clouds can be dark, filled with lightning and thunder, they can be light and fluffy, or wispy and barely there. Think about a sunset. Or a sunrise. Think about the pinks, purples, oranges... sometimes soft and pretty, and sometimes intense and bright! Takes your breath away, doesn't it? Sometimes it piles up like the pillars of billowy clouds in the sky, sometimes its barely noticeable like the clear blue and sunshine filled days. Is the sorrow ever gone? Well, just like the clouds... no. It just changes day to day, and moment to moment. My sorrow comes and goes like the clouds.
I heard this song on the radio, "Hope in Front of Me" by Danny Gokey. It fit so perfectly, I wanted to set some cloud photos to the song. I ended up using many pictures from the Meg's Miles support group on Facebook that I am in. We run to support a family in grief. The logo on our shirts says, "I run for Meg." And as I think about those words I realize Meg's Mom, Husband, and Mother in law "run for Meg" to feel her presence. To feel what she felt when she ran. To enjoy something that she enjoyed.
Doing something that a loved one used to do makes you feel close to them. After my brother Paul passed away from Melanoma cancer, instead of attending a memorial, his wife Ruth, myself, my other brother Nathan, and my Dad did things that Paul loved to do. We went to his favorite burger joint and had lunch. We went to the fair and went on all the rides that Ruth and he had gone on the year before when he was healthier. Then we did Bikram yoga together, something Ruth and Paul did as instructors, and something Paul started doing to manage terrible back pain from literally breaking his back in half from a 90 foot fall! All those activities made us feel close to him. And this past year, when the 3rd anniversary of Paul's passing came along and I was having a hard time facing it again, I went to a Bikram class almost every day for a week. It was cleansing. It made me feel close to him; it made me miss him, but it also reminded me of him in good ways. I am pretty sure running is something similar for Meg's family. The bitter and the sweet all combined into one. Like the "Clouds of Sorrow," as I've dubbed them.
Here is the video I made with the collection of cloud pictures from the Meg's Miles support group, some I took and some from a friend of mine. As I study clouds and think of the similarities to my sorrow, I see the beauty in the sorrow. If the clouds are my sorrow, and Christ is the sun, when I reflect more of Him the more beautiful I become. I become more full of grace and mercy, love and compassion. And that makes people full of sorrow beautiful people, if they seek after Christ and to be made like Him, and don't let bitterness overtake them. The Bible says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4. That is a promise from God. Cling to that promise, and don't let the dark clouds get you down. The sun is coming, the sky will grow more and more beautiful... just wait and see!
Doing something that a loved one used to do makes you feel close to them. After my brother Paul passed away from Melanoma cancer, instead of attending a memorial, his wife Ruth, myself, my other brother Nathan, and my Dad did things that Paul loved to do. We went to his favorite burger joint and had lunch. We went to the fair and went on all the rides that Ruth and he had gone on the year before when he was healthier. Then we did Bikram yoga together, something Ruth and Paul did as instructors, and something Paul started doing to manage terrible back pain from literally breaking his back in half from a 90 foot fall! All those activities made us feel close to him. And this past year, when the 3rd anniversary of Paul's passing came along and I was having a hard time facing it again, I went to a Bikram class almost every day for a week. It was cleansing. It made me feel close to him; it made me miss him, but it also reminded me of him in good ways. I am pretty sure running is something similar for Meg's family. The bitter and the sweet all combined into one. Like the "Clouds of Sorrow," as I've dubbed them.
Here is the video I made with the collection of cloud pictures from the Meg's Miles support group, some I took and some from a friend of mine. As I study clouds and think of the similarities to my sorrow, I see the beauty in the sorrow. If the clouds are my sorrow, and Christ is the sun, when I reflect more of Him the more beautiful I become. I become more full of grace and mercy, love and compassion. And that makes people full of sorrow beautiful people, if they seek after Christ and to be made like Him, and don't let bitterness overtake them. The Bible says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4. That is a promise from God. Cling to that promise, and don't let the dark clouds get you down. The sun is coming, the sky will grow more and more beautiful... just wait and see!
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Galatians 6:2 (ESV) Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
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