I am looking out of a small window and, during the past few hours, I have seen all sorts of clouds and even some blue sky. A few minutes ago, it was pretty puffy--the clouds looked light and gay, but not now. Now it is dark and foreboding; and even as I watch, the pattern is changing.

I feel something within me because of this. I want to find words that will tell others something of what I feel. Sometimes I am depressed, sometimes I am exuberant; and I suppose at times I experience all the moods in between. My life is an ever changing gamit of emotions, just like the view through the window.

I suppose if I watched out the window long enough and averaged what I saw, I could pretty much tell what the day was like, even though I only could see a little piece at a time. I would be utterly foolish to think that the whole world was covered with clouds just because clouds filled my window. that window is an exceedingly small part of the world, even though it is all I can see at any one time. well, what about my life being the same way. a minute, an hour, a day, that's a short time compared to my whole life. why should I think my whole life is dark when it is just the moment I am in that is dark. the darkness will change and light will come just as surely as the clouds move past my window.

Even as I can not be depressed for always because of a moment of darkness, I can not become endlessly elated because of the joy of the moment. There will be bright spots in my life and there will be dark places. But if I am wise, I will know that they average out, and all in all, my life is pretty much what I make it.

That's life! The clouds I watched are bound to this earth. Their pattern changes because of heat and cold and moisture and winds. You see, the clouds are not everything! 

Neither are trials or happiness!

The clouds come and they bring life into bloom by their rains. Life could be barren if it weren't for the rains. That's the way it is with us, too--our life would be barren if it weren't for those dark moments that teach us faith.

We would not be fit to comfort others if we had not needed comfort ourselves.

To be indiscriminately happy is a sickness. It is like a shallow river that runs fast and makes a lot of noise, but it doesn’t carry any freight. There is something that tempers the clouds and the wind and the rain, and that is the sun. It is always there whether you can see it or not, and by it, all life on earth is sustained.

Sometimes the clouds hide the sun and we feel misierable and cold, but the sun is still there sustaining life on this earth. Rain, winds, snow, clouds--they might hide the sun, but they don't change it.

Now, I guess, here is the whole heart of what I feel I want to put into words.

Man might live on this earth, and in a physical sense, he is bound to it…

But the man who believes Jesus is not really a part of this world--he is a part of god! that’s why he can't allow himself to change with every shade of light and darkness. his life is beyond the worries and frustrations and cares of this world. and, even the happiness of this world is not life to him.  his life is in god. in him is all that sustains us. he is our strength, our joy, and our life; and he does not change. he is not like the clouds outside the window. he is life, and I am his.

So I can rest. I need not be fearful because of the darkness that might seem to surround me. It is only for a moment. God is eternal--he, changes not. I can look at the circumstances that surround me and I need not be over¬come by any of them. Their life is transient, but god’s life in me is unchanging. So, whether the clouds come or go, I need not be disturbed. God has given his life to me and I can rest in his unchanging love.

-- Roy L. Stahl