Blue Skies

This evening, I flew home on a short internal flight. It was grey and raining when we took off and the plane wobbled as we flew up through the different layers of clouds.


The rain spattered and pattered on the windows and ran down them as we rose up through the clouds. And then all of a sudden, as we broke through the clouds, the rain ran off the windows and we were surrounded by blue skies. The clouds were puffy white islands beneath us that made me think of Aladdin and Jasmine's magic carpet ride.


Whenever I fly, I am always amazed by how, no matter what the weather is like on the ground, there are always clear blue skies above. It can be heavy thunder and lightning and a turbulent flight, but as soon as you get up above the clouds, there is an endless sky of perfect, uninterrupted blue.


In the same way, regardless of the storms in our lives and the 'bad weather' on the ground, if we can get up high enough and rise above the rain, we will find peace and hope in God.


But, in the same way that we can't make ourselves fly (a design flaw in my mind), we often can't lift ourselves up spiritually either. We get stuck beneath the clouds and can't see anything above them. In these times, we can ask others to support us and pray with us but, above all, we can ask God to lift us up.


Isaiah describes God lifting us up when we are exhausted and caught up in the storms.


"He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint."

[Isaiah 40:29-31 NLT]

When we feel tired and run-down and caught in the storms of this life, God can lift us and carry us above the clouds, to a place of peace.