It's coming up a cloud

"...When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does." Luke 12:54

COMING UP A CLOUD

If you hear someone say, “it’s coming up a cloud” it means a storm is approaching. When daddy said this it meant we had to go inside and take cover from the imminent danger of a thunderstorm.

One summer when I was working at Pawleys Island, a friend and I took out a catamaran. We tacked along the shore for quite a while and when we turned around, we could see dark clouds on the horizon. We're now going against the wind trying to get back to where we had launched but the ski was getting darker by the minute.

Soon the driving rain began pelting us sideways as thunder and lightning exploded all around us. It was terrifying and I just knew I was a goner. Suddenly the rains stopped, the sun peeked through the clouds, and the sea calmed. But only briefly…..we had gone through the eye of this storm, and now we had to go through the other side.

Mark tells us in 4:35-41, about being afraid when a furious storm appeared out of nowhere. He was terrified and Jesus was right there in the boat with him. Although Mark was one of Jesus's devout disciples, he revealed to us his human and vulnerable qualities because he also got scared.

Storms will come and go in our lives that we have to endure, but there's no storm God can’t calm. God is able to calm our fears just as he's able to calm the sea. Psalm 107:29 says, “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.” So when it’s coming up a cloud, we can know with assurance when we call on the Lord, he'll help us weather any storm.