a pondering on clouds

  The infinite, tender love of God for His own struck me anew as I considered the clouds a few days ago. Recall that God led His people out of Egypt and into a wilderness wasteland. Many hardships had been and continued to be their lot, but moment by moment they had the Cloud above them as a constant reminder that though the God of their Fathers had led them from one difficulty to another, still their Father God was tenderly concerned with their well-being. A pillar of cloud by day, shading and cooling against the hot sun. A pillar of fire by night, brightening, warming and protecting in the coldness that descends at nightfall in desert places. What tender love!

  The cloudy/fiery pillar of the divine Presence was there to lead them both day and night; with such tender love on display, it is hard to imagine that the omniscient One did not accommodate the pace to the slowest and shakiest every step of the way.

  We also have continual tokens of God's abiding love; may we not become so calloused about them that we ignore them and rebel against our loving Father, even when He leads us through a dry wilderness. The clouds must press upon us the personal love of our great Father for His people. Seek the tokens of God in your lives as a church and a believer and trust that even in the wilderness God's love cannot have wavered! 

 - Exodus 13:21-22; Numbers 14:14; Nehemiah 9:12, 19; 1 Corinthians 10:1ff