by Jayson Tidland

I like clouds a lot and God the Father knows this. It is sort of hard to fathom why the creator of the universe cares that much about "our details" but he does. He knows our likes and loves and he often meets us on that level. In the same way, He cares about all the rest too. The good, the bad and the ugly. He wants us to invite him into all those areas. Do you want exposure to eternal things? If you don't get anything else from this story, get this...we can invite God into all of "our details." Unwavering Father" Hide away, in wonder, wild, These are times, quiet and free. Father, present with his child, Space and time bend a knee. Storms and danger, troubles piled These are times, quiet and free. Father, present with his child, Eternal things for all to see" A path to cloud nerdiness began almost a year ago for me. Don't be fooled by the interest though. I started paying a bit more attention the "ordinary things" like clouds. Undoubtedly, my head has been in the clouds but it's not just the clouds I'm looking for. It's this thing between me and Papa. Our thing...

The back story: While at a Bootcamp (men's retreat) in Colorado in the summer of 2012, we had just finished up another one of the weekend's great sessions. It was deep in content, but the main points were about healing wounds, and a closer relationship with God as a father and his playfulness with us. After the session was a quiet time so the group dispersed to find solitary spots somewhere. I wandered down to a little lake for a spot on the shore. I got comfortable and tried to journal some, but that didn't last - the jagged mountains, the reflecting water, birds, bugs, and critters, the sweetness of the air, the cool hard sand at the water line, the friendly breeze stirring the trees...and the clouds! The gigantic puffy clouds not far above! A good distraction for a wandering mind and it did wander. As I lay on the shore, gazing up at the sky, a conversation with the Father began..."Lord, I love what you have made here; this place is so calm and peaceful today. The mountains are beautiful and the clouds are so amazing. Lord, I love to watch clouds changing shapes." - (Long pause)"You are doing this aren’t you?" - (Longer pause)"Allow me to see what you are making up there." At that, it all came into focus and I began to recognize hundreds of shapes taking form! The clouds were animated, quickly moving, and changing! As fast as they took one form they would change again. I remained motionless, fixated and..."Don't move!" I thought, "Don't miss this!" It was almost too much! I wanted to shout out something, announce it, something! I watched with joy, wonder and awe and a pounding chest. An opening in the cloud was taking a shape. As I watched, it took the shape of an eye, and a face formed around it and a glimpse of the other eye. The face kept its shape but quickly became partially hidden behind another cloud. Soon just one eye visible, peaking around a corner but I could see the mouth, nose and cheek. The eye became even more defined. Not just a shadow, not just a resemblance, a blue eye with a white iris and pupil, all perfectly defined. The eyelid, brow and lashes were all there. Quickly, the face became more and more concealed as clouds moved in from both sides, but the eye remained longest. It turned in its socket and looked at me! About ten long seconds passed and the eyelid came down. It was closed and the vision was over. I lay there still for a few more minutes trying to process what just happened. Wondering, "Could there have been a message in this?" So I began to write it down the best I could. Then He cut in, "Because I love you." He said. "I did this because you are one of my kids and I love you." Peek-A-Boo in the clouds! What will He think of next?