Clouds conceal the mountaintops today. Thick and gray. Foreboding even.

But I have a hunch something is happening behind the clouds, beyond what my eyes can see. There’ve been clues: the temperature plummeted yesterday, and it is autumn, after all. So I’m waiting for the big reveal. Fresh snow. First snow.

While Jesus walked the earth, he communicated the big concepts through parables; He has always communicated with us  through the natural world. Nature images God, which is handy because we couldn’t possibly look directly upon him in his fullness. He’s too great. He’s too other. So why wouldn’t he choose to reveal aspects of himself through visible metaphors . . . like clouds?

Witnessing Creation’s miracles, its intensity, its beauty, and its harmony, I’m certain I understand him more. If it makes my mouth as well as my soul gasp in awe, it’s got to be him. I know it’s him.

Joni Mitchell sang about clouds’ illusions. Are the clouds illusory? If we believe God is real, and most of us say we do, then by definition there’s nothing illusory about him. So neither is their anything unreal about his creation. That’s why I’m more interested in the clouds’ allusions.

In fact, maybe a worthwhile question is What is God alluding to—right here, right now, in my present circumstances?

What’s he doing behind my clouds? Behind today’s fear, behind tonight’s crisis? What’s he doing behind the relationships and circumstances that compete for my attention? Behind my helplessness to solve the problem that’s beyond my control?

Will I act and react based on something illusory, such as my feelings–which I know can’t be trusted? Or will I up my ante today, trusting that behind the latest curtain of clouds, he’s still very much at work? I can trust him for tomorrow’s outcomes. I can rest in his promises.

Like the promise of first snow.

What is he alluding to in your life today?