Like a Passing Cloud

On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction. They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them. As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
Job 30:12–15
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Like a Passing Cloud
If you have ever sat and watched the clouds go by you may have noticed that some of them seem to form out of nowhere and then just as mysteriously disappear into nothing. This sense of unexplained loss is what Job is experiencing.  He can’t comprehend why he is suffering as he is.  He feels even God has vanished from his life.  We have the luxury of knowing the whole story, that God is there, and it is the devil who attacks Job. Yet Job is not privy to this revelation and so blames God for his plight.  Like Job, we forget that God is always with us, that He never abandons us, especially in our darkest hour. We have a God who is not fickle and uninvolved with His creation. He does not come in and out of our lives as a passing cloud.  He is our rock, an ever-present source of comfort and forgiveness. We need not wonder if God is with us, for He has promised to be (Isaiah 41:10). In His Word and Sacraments God comes to us delivering His strength and forgiveness.  In His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, we have the assurance of God’s love. In looking to the cross we see the depth of God’s commitment to bringing us back to Him.