Above The Clouds

I enjoy flying. I've been able to do a fair bit of it in my lifetime, but it never gets old. I always (always) check-in online so I can get a window seat. I always open my eyes for the takeoff so I can look out the said window (this is of particular note when you've gotten up at 3am to make it onto the 5am flight). I always watch during the landing as well. But most of all, I love how very beautiful the world is up above the clouds. Sometimes I wish I could float up there for a few minutes, just to feel the quiet that I sense exists when there are no air-planes around.

One Tuesday morning, as I was driving to the airport at 4am, I noticed that I could see the stars and see the moon.  There were no clouds at all in the early morning sky; the storm of the day before was finally over.   And after a solid week of rain, it was kind of nice to be flying through the sunrise, up high above the clouds. The sunshine was just glorious, and as the flight went on, down below for as far as the eye could see, there were the most magnificent, fluffy, white blankets and fabulous clouds. 

After an hour or so, the pilot announced that we would be landing shortly, and we began our descent. I always enjoy going through the cloud layer. It's just a tiny bit thrilling and scary since you can't see anything, and I find myself placing a lot of faith in the instruments up in the cockpit and straining to see the image of the ground below as it emerges through the bottom of the cloud layer. It seemed to take longer than normal to get through the clouds this time though - the layers were really thick. And when we finally burst out through the bottom of them, I did a bit of a double take. It was so gloomy and rainy and windy and dark and cold! I had, of course, followed the rainy weather to Sydney.

It was probably just because I was tired and not thinking that clearly so early in the morning, but I was a little shocked!  It got me thinking: I wonder how often I look up and see gloomy clouds, and rain and darkness, and somehow think that that's all there is? And I thought about how often the sun is streaming down gloriously, just on the other side of the clouds. I think sometimes clouds gather because of a difficult test or trial, and those storms are real and valid, and require a lot of faith and effort on our part to get through them.  I think that sometimes I put the clouds there because of a bad attitude, or sin, or a general inclination to feel hopeless.  And then of course I think there are the times that the cyclones of life just blow on in without giving us much choice in the matter.

Regardless, I continue to find it comforting to realize that no matter how dark the clouds might seem, the sun is still shining beautifully just above them. Ultimately, they'll dissipate - clouds always do - and the constant and brilliant sun will be visible again.


By Tammy Munro