Led by a Cloud

When I've read the Old Testament story of the children of Israel being led by a cloud each day after they left Egypt, I've often wondered what that meant......or more specifically, what it might have looked like.  There are clouds every day.  What's to distinguish one from another?  What makes one more special?

When we lived in Holland, we saw lots of clouds.  They were massive - filling the whole sky.  There seemed to be more clouds than earth.  When you looked out the window, you saw a little bit of land, but most of the view would be clouds - great masses of them!  And they just hung there!  They didn't seem to move very quickly.  They stayed there and brought gray days and rain.  The sky was often very bleak and heavy looking.

Since moving to Cape Town, I have been fascinated by the clouds here!  They are huge, and move quickly through the valley where we live.  They may move east for awhile......and then later I'll look, and they're moving west.  Sometimes there are 2 types of clouds moving in opposite directions.  Some clouds hang low in the valley, others are high above us.  Sometimes the sun is shining through the clouds making them almost too bright to look at.  Very rarely do the clouds here stay still.  They seem to always be on the move.

The clouds and the ocean seem to have a distinct relationship - working together.  Sometimes clouds roll in from the ocean and disappear as they reach land.  On other days, it's the opposite - they roll from land out to the ocean and dissipate quickly.  It's fascinating and constantly changing.  I can see why people would be drawn to study them and learn from them.

I don't think I've been "led" by them yet, but I've certainly enjoyed watching them........and thinking of the one who created them!  How vast and awesome is He!!  Clouds are mentioned so often in the Word.  In the Old Testament, His presence was often in the cloud.......in the New Testament, He spoke out of the cloud at Christ's baptism.  I look out the window at these beautiful clouds and sense His nearness all around me!

"The Lord God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way......and did not depart from before the people."  Exodus 13: 21, 22