Cloudy Vision
If you're anything like me, the grey skies of winter beg you to pull out an extra dosage of some Vitamin D and buckle down until the clear skies of spring come again. The clouds of winter are thick and merciless with the taunting of a snow day that never seems to be delivered, leaving me stressed when driving through my Virginia mountain roads. I mean, who likes driving through thick fog or low-lying clouds that obscure vision and make it hard to see? That's my real problem with clouds – not that they take away the sun or tinge everything with a shade of grey, but that they block my vision of what is ahead of me.
The winter seasons in our spirit produces a cloudy vision of what God is doing or where He may be in the midst of these clouds. The sun is gone, and the shade of grey we may feel gives no sense of where God may be leading us. It’s just us in a thick fog layer, begging for any direction that may come.
“ But the cloud that is the very thing blocking your vision may be the catalyst into your upcoming season of clarity.”
I don't know what your cloudy vision may be; for me, it has a lot to do with mental health and trying to see beyond the clouds it produces. For you, it may be a loss of hope, a loss of a loved one, a disappointment in a job, or stress that you don't know how to manage. The winter has come, and it seems to cover all our hope, all our light, and all our vision. But the cloud that is the very thing blocking your vision may be the catalyst into your upcoming season of clarity.
Have you ever noticed that after it rains, the clouds dissipate? Or that a nighttime snow brings a sun shining in the morning? Physical clouds are, in fact, often a result of something changing in the atmosphere, and your spiritual cloudiness may be a result of the same factor. Your spiritual atmosphere may be changing without you even knowing it.
In my commute to work several weeks ago, as I was stuck in my own fog, I heard a pastor on a podcast bring up the scripture in Exodus 13:21; the Scripture where God led Israel out of the very captivity they were stuck in for years, by nothing other than a cloud. The very thing that may be blocking our vision might be God requiring us to follow our faith over our sight and trust in Him rather than the view or image of life that we can see ahead of us. It was the cloud that was the manifestation of the presence of God, it was the cloud that led the Israelites out of captivity, it was the cloud that brought protection to them from their enemies.
“The very thing that may be blocking our vision might be God requiring us to follow our faith over our sight and trust in Him”
I don't know what your cloud is, friend, but what I do know is that in every cloudy vision, there may be a manifestation God wants to have in our very lives. A catalyst to trust Him beyond what we see, to lead us through whatever valley we may be going through, or to protect us from attack. I challenge us to change our mindset from cloudiness as a burden to cloudiness as a manifestation. Lean into the cloud – lean into God's presence.
Your situation may be changing and creating a cloud in your line of sight, but the rain will come, and the sun will shine again. Until that moment comes, embrace the cloud before you and seek God as He leads you. It may not be time for you to see what is ahead quite yet, and that is okay. Trust that God leads us and beckons our faith to guide us over our sight. The clouds will clear eventually, but for now, just like the clouds blowing through the grey winter sky, keep moving forward and be reminded of God’s presence in the midst of it.