Cloud Formations and Object Lessons
When I was a kid, I would always look up at the clouds and say "Oh, look! That cloud looks like a rabbit!" or "That cloud reminds me of a pine tree!" or "Doesn't that cloud look just like a truck to you?"And once in awhile others would see what I saw, but mostly they just chuckled and told me I had quite a vivid imagination. Not that there's anything wrong with having a vivid imagination...it's just that no one saw things the way I did. But that was okay...I had fun looking for ducks and rabbits and cars and trains and everything else on earth up in the sky, even if no one else ever saw it.
I realized recently that the Apostle Peter saw life a lot like I do. Not that he saw rabbits in the clouds, but it seems that no matter what Peter looked at, he could see something of great importance in even the smallest thing. But where I was busy looking for rabbits and ducks, Peter was looking much deeper; no matter what he looked at, he seemed to be able to see a deep spiritual object lesson begging to be noticed. It was as though every physical object and institution was created as a symbol, an object lesson, of some wonderful truth in the spiritual world. And perhaps it was...
When Peter looked at a lump of gold, refined by fire, he saw it as an object lesson for the strength and purity obtained through the fires of tribulation in our lives.
When Peter looked at a blade of grass, which lasts only a short time in this world, he saw it as an object lesson of the contrast between the mortality of this physical life and the eternal nature of God's word.
When Peter saw a newborn baby hungrily consuming its mother's milk, he saw it as an object lesson of a believer who has set aside his appetite for malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, and has returned to his appetite for the eternal and nutricious Word of God.
When Peter looked at a building, he saw not just a pile of rocks stacked one upon the other; he saw an object lesson teaching us about the nature of the church - not made of ordinary rocks, but of living stones stacked one upon the other as God - the great architect - chooses, with Jesus as the bedrock, the foundation, the cornerstone.
When Peter looked at the nations of this world, he saw them not just as human institutions of government, but as object lessons of the "foreignness" we experience, wandering through this world yet citizens of a "Holy Nation".
But the greatest object lessons Peter sees are the ones in which you and I take part. Because when Peter sees the way we respond to authority, when Peter sees the way a wife responds to her husband, when Peter sees the way a husband responds to his wife, when Peter sees the way we respond to trials and tribulations and suffering, when Peter sees the way we shepherd the flock of God, he sees in us a reflection, a pointer, to Jesus Christ.
That is what I want for my life - that I will be much more than just me, that I will become an object lesson pointing people to Jesus Christ.
II Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Posted On Jul 21, 2005 at 3:57 AM
On Jul 21, 2005 WOW wrote: Regarding the cloud formations, I have to admit that sometimes we suspected an ulterior motive when we would be out riding and you would look up and say, "Look, Dad, that cloud looks like and ice cream cone!"
Doug Replied: ha ha! That's very funny...and probably true...although I don't actually remember that...it's odd...for some reason I very distinctly remember seeing rabbits and ducks. I don't know why. I'm sure I didn't want rabbit stew...
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