I saw some of the most beautiful clouds today as I was sitting in the swing and porch pondering on this glorious Sunday the Lord has created. As Remez Sasson said, “The moving clouds draw shifting images on the canvas of the sky.” One big cloud Father Sky sketched this morning looked just like a grandmother holding a baby on her shoulder. The grandmother had her back to me and I could see the baby’s round chubby cheeks and little pug nose, a few curls kicking up over the baby’s ears. The grandmother’s white hair done up in a bun was kissed on the crown by the sun breaking through the overcast clouds. Should have taken a photograph.

For a brief second I could imagine a baby arriving in heaven, greeted by their loving heavenly grandmother. Although short lived, that picturesque cloud captured my imagination. I’ve seen fire breathing dragons and fish and dogs and barracudas in the sky today as the purple clouds gathered for menacing thunderstorms, then broke apart for the sun to return and highlight the tiaras of the fluffy white cumulus clouds appearing after the storms.

I like Percy Bysshe Shelley’s definition of a cloud — “I am the daughter of Earth and Water, and the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die.” Today’s afternoon sky was a study of various colors of blue and gray and purple as the clouds bubbled up and spilled their rain to water the thirsty Mother Earth. When I went out this morning the sky was robin egg blue and Father Sky had sketched luminous white clouds with his pastels and the sun was lighting their crowns. As the day progressed Father Sky got out his pastels and colored his clouds in the dark purples and grays of thunderstorm clouds.

“Even when dark clouds fill the sky, the sun is always shining above the clouds,” Anthony T. Hincks. It’s hard to realize the sun is always shining. Even when we can’t see it hidden behind the clouds her yellow beams are reaching for earth. God is like the sun, his love and warmth always right with us even though we have to part the clouds sometimes to find him. The Holy Spirit is associated with light in the Bible and God’s light is always around us. We may feel neglected when life goes astray but through our prayers we can feel his grace and his presence.

God is not hidden from our sight. We can see him in all the wonders of nature’s world around us — the beautiful sunsets, the butterfly wings, and all the colors of a garden’s zinnias. God’s light is also found in family and loved ones and in friendships with others. God blesses us everyday with the gift of life. Our lives are a blank canvas and every day is a stroke of God’s paint brush. Give yourself to God so he can paint a masterpiece with your life.

“God is the ultimate painter, and each one of us is a unique masterpiece painted with his divine brush strokes.” — Unknown