The Cloud

The Cloud

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is The Cloud from our Sojourn With Luz Leigh Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

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Sojourn With Luz Leigh

The Cloud

Written by Luz Leigh - 10 August 2007

Have you ever sat or lay on the ground and watched as clouds pass overheard? As a kid I would lie on the front porch of our house and watch the different formations. Ahh, there is a horse, but quickly it changes to something else. The cloud that looked so much like a face of an old man becomes a tree. And on and on it would go. As I was driving to church the other day, I began watching the clouds as they changed. It reminded me of our lives; we begin as one thing only to evolve into something quite different.

A young person who has been reared in the admonition of the Lord has decided as a teen that he wants to be "free." "Lord, let me go free. Let me experience the things of the world that my friends all enjoy." The Lord replies, "My child, are you SURE you want to be free?" "Oh, yes, Father, there are so many pleasures I have not known yet. Before I am too old I want to be free."

With a sad expression on his face, the Lord says, "Then, my child, you are free to go." Oh, wow! I'm FREE. I'm FREE. I can do what I please. I have no more curfews; no more rules to follow. Oh, where are my friends? I must rush to tell them that I am FREE. That cloud in the sky is beckoning to the young person. It looks like a pleasurable place to visit.

The young person finds his friends and tells them the good news: I am FREE. Do come in and join us in our care-less life. We are not exactly free, but we have no cares, the friends explain.

For years the young person follows the crowd, always telling himself "I am FREE." The cloud that beckoned, promising a fun life, has changed. It is now just a formless puff of smoke in the crowded room.

But still the young person keeps assuring himself that he is FREE. He has tossed away his work ethics; his morals that his parents so lovingly taught him. He once again says, I am free ... except this time he is not so sure. I am free to do what? Follow the worldly crowd of people I once thought of as my friends? The cloud is now a form that looks like a menacing devil's face. Where did the beauty of the first cloud go?

Is this really what I want? The young man ponders a long time about this. He had chosen to be what he supposed to be "free" only to find there were more things binding his life than ever before. The disrespectful "friends" who think only of themselves; the drinking and drug use that is accepted in this circle of friends; he sees that work ethics are not a part of their lives. Man, do I want to be a part of this "free" crowd? The cloud has now changed to a sweet profile of his loving mother; the mother who has never stopped praying that her child will realize he is not free, but enslaved to the world.

He does some serious thinking. This being free ... is it worth sacrificing all that I had? My home, my loving family, my Christian friends, my church, and most of all my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Do I want to toss all that away? Oh, no, Father. I know now that being "free" is not that at all. Being "free" in the sense I chose, brings only degradation and heartache. Father, I want to be free in the sense you provide for me. The cloud looms large in the sky in the form of an old rugged cross. The cross on which our Savior died.

Father, I'm coming back to You, my family and all that I threw away. I want to be truly FREE and that only comes through You. The young man begins running toward his Father, tears, streaming down his face. The cloud has now taken the shape of open outstretched arms.

Father, forgive me. The cloud is now the face of our Heavenly Father, smiling, because His child has returned to accept the FREEdom He provides.

I'm FREE, FREE, FREE, FREE. Thank you, Father, for keeping my freedom for me. I know now the being "free" that I sought was not freedom at all, but slavery to sin and this world. But, thank You Lord, for making me FREE as only You can. The cloud is there now continuously to remind the young man what it really means to be free.

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