Editors note: Written a few years ago. Still very relevant.
Do you know about lazy clouds? In parts of India, they are extremely rare. Here in New Delhi where I’m staying they don’t see them very often. What are lazy clouds you ask? J Fog. Fog is a cloud too lazy to fly – so it lies on the ground. It just lies around, luxuriously relaxing – doing nothing much at all.
Lazy and not-so-lazy clouds can be beautiful and dangerous at the same time. Everyone loves the white puffy billows, flying high and riding the winds with joy. But flying an aircraft into one unprepared is often fatal. Driving a car in a lazy cloud, without slowing down and taking your time can be fatal too. Many deaths in mega-car pileups are blamed every year on our lazy clouds.
Many decades ago, as a young pilot, I remember taking off, shrouded in a lazy cloud. The fog was so thick I couldn’t see more than 10 meters in front of me. It was FOGGY. Taking off in a helicopter in the fog, is one of the most difficult and dangerous things you can do as a pilot. If you don’t get airspeed and altitude quickly, you can die. If you don’t trust your instruments completely you will die. So I was obviously nervous as I prepared to jump from the earth. I fixed my eyes on the flight panel, trusting in my instruments as we left the ground. I told my copilot to tell me the instant we were out of the fog. It seemed to take forever but soon my friend told me to look up. As I diverted my gaze to the windshield I saw a wondrous sight. The whole earth was covered with fog except the two mountain ranges on each side of us and just to my left, jutting out of the fog was the tail of a huge C-5 – the largest military cargo aircraft in the US inventory. We had not known the C-5 was even at the airport because of the fog that morning. But there it was, tail sticking high above the fog like a shark fin. Lazy Clouds – most beautiful and dangerous!
It’s not just fog. Flying clouds can be dangerous too. During military flight school, I lost 6 classmates due to their inability to trust their instruments when flying in clouds. Because of their lack of trust, 6 good men died.
After flight school, my best friend, Dave Chrisman, and I were sent to Texas to fly. Vietnam was all but over so we started our military duty at Ft. Hood Texas. We were ‘new bee’ copilots with a whole lot to learn.
One night, not long after we had arrived, we were on a night exercise flying in loose single-file formation. We had clouds at 400 meters so we stayed below them to stay out of trouble. Dave was in the helicopter in front of me. My job was to follow just behind and slightly above him to stay out of his rotor wash. As we flew I noticed he was slowly gaining altitude. His climbing was only slight, hardly discernable at all, but since it was my mission to stay above him, I noticed it. I continued to climb with him until I saw the bottoms of the clouds, reflected by the lights of our aircraft. I was scared. I told my pilot that even though it was breaking protocol, I was not going to climb any further. That if I did, I ran the risk of going into the clouds. I would continue to stay in formation with Dave but not above him. So we flew on like this as Dave flew in front of me but slightly above me.
Suddenly I saw him hit and then enter the clouds above us. Then his aircraft disappeared completely into the mist. He was gone. I could no longer follow him in formation. I didn’t know what to do. I asked my pilot who had seen the same thing. Before we could come to a decision, about 20 seconds after Dave entered the clouds, I saw what looked like a falling star coming down from the clouds. It went straight down in front of me, like a rocket shot from the clouds it went instantly to the ground below and then exploded into a brilliant white light of burning jet fuel and magnesium. I had just witnessed the final moments of my best friend’s life. Dave Chrisman was dead.
At the young age of 19, at 3 o’clock the next morning, with an Army Chaplain beside me, I was knocking on the door of Dave’s home, preparing to tell his new widow that her husband was gone. What a horrible time. Clouds can be dangerous. They’ve taken my best friends from me.
So now you might understand my level of trepidation the other day when my flight from New Delhi to Coimbatore was delayed – for FOG. And fog is a very rare thing in Delhi, India; they don’t see it often and are not equipped to deal with it. We were supposed to fly out at 05:30 am but the flight was delayed until 8:00. I was fine with that. The more visibility the better as far as I was concerned. But even after the delay, the lazy clouds persisted in just hanging around. They decided they just weren’t going anywhere – I guess they liked Delhi that day. So we boarded the plane anyway and the pilots prepared to take on the dangerous task of taxiing and taking off in fog.
So we did. As we took off, I started counting the seconds, 1001, 1002, 1003…. Watching through the window for the moment we would break out of the fog. 1004, 1005, 1006…. I knew the more we were “in the soup” the more dangerous it was, 1007, 1008, 1009, 1010… Still, in the fog, the ground is long gone, I couldn’t tell up from down, left from right, I knew if the pilots did not trust in their instruments completely we were in big trouble, 1011, 1012, 1013, 1014, 1015 and WE BROKE OUT INTO THE SUN! Whoop! I could finally see the horizon and knew that we were climbing level. We were safe.
I sat back in my seat and relaxed for the first time since boarding. It was going to be ok. I thanked God for his protection and I silently thanked the pilots for trusting in their instruments. We continued climbing to the appropriate flight level and proceeded south toward my destination, the orphanage I had fallen in love with 3 months ago. I was finally on the last leg of my journey going to my second home – going to finally see my adopted nieces who had stolen my heart, all 356 of them, back in September. Now there were almost 500 of them.
Almost 150 new orphans have recently come from Orissa where the persecution of Christians has escalated to the point where whole villages have been burned; 10s of thousands running into the jungles to escape. The government has created refugee camps trying to quell the violence but still – much misery and suffering is happening there RIGHT NOW as you read this. Many have been murdered for their Christian faith or died in the jungles trying to escape – leaving young girls with no hope of surviving.
The Michael Job Centre for Orphan Girls gives them Life AND Hope AND a Future. What a God-beautiful place it is. I was talking to Dr Job (the founder of the Orphanage) the other day about the new arrivals. He was there at the train station in Orrisa as they were rescuing the most recent group of girls. With tears in his eyes he recounted the story as he described the One Thousand other Christian children on the train platform that day. The Thousand he had to leave behind. They were crying and pleading with him to take them too. With streaming tears, they begged, they cried, ‘If you leave us here we will die.’ He believed them. But He had to leave them there. He did not have the resources to take more. In reality, he didn’t have the resources to take the ones he did! But by stepping out in faith, he trusted that God would provide the things they needed – just as He has always done, since the start of the orphanage 9 years ago now.
I settled back in my seat as we reached cruising altitude, I once again started looking out the window watching the lazy clouds far below. They were beautiful. The whole earth, as far as I could see from my 30,000 feet vantage point, was covered in a wooly white, fluffy blanket. I could see no earth or ground at all – anywhere – the world, the whole world for me was covered in white. It was breathtaking. It reminded me of the heaven images of my childhood. It was as if I could step out and just sit on a cloud – what a wonderful picture.
I was watching the fog below, thinking about the girls, when all of a sudden from within the fog I saw a bright flash. It was like the flash-flare from a camera taking a picture. I looked intently but I couldn’t find the source. I wondered if I was imagining things – what in the world could it have been? I keep looking to see if it had been real or just my mind playing tricks on me. Then I saw it again – a silver blaze of light – so fast but long enough to know that it was real. Something was down there for sure.
The fog was thick. I couldn’t see the ground through the fog so what in this world could be causing these flashes? Maybe lightning I thought, but these were not cumulonimbus clouds – the ones that cause thunderstorms. These were lazy clouds, and fog, close to the ground. Then I saw the flash again but this time, since I was watching intently I saw more. As I focused keenly on the area that had produced the flash I saw something amazing. The best way I can describe it is – it appeared to be a silver serpent, running below the fog, but so brilliant with light that I could see it through the fog. I would see it, and then it would disappear completely in the fog. Then I saw it reappear again, running below the fog with what appeared to be silver scales glistening with flashing light – what an incredible sight.
Can you guess what I was seeing? Can you tell me the secret of the silver serpent? Try to guess before reading more if you want the joy of figuring it out before I tell you…….
Give up?
Are you sure?
Ok here is the answer. What I was seeing was the light of the sun, reflecting off the river below. If you look at most rivers from above, they wave and weave back and forth across the ground much like a snake. What I was seeing was the silver reflection of the sun bouncing off the water with such force and brilliance that it was cutting through the fog and back into my eyes. I couldn’t see the ground or anything else around the river, only the reflection of the sun. Whoop! What a beautiful sight I was seeing. As I watched the silver serpent weave its path downriver I marveled at God’s creation. What a wonderful thing He has done and what a great gift He has provided that I might see and share it with Him.
And now kind and patient Christian reader, I have said all I have said above so that I can say this.
God wants YOU to be like this Silver Serpent. But instead of reflecting the sun through the fog, His admonition is that you reflect His SON to the world.
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. 2 Cor 3:18
Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Ps 34:5
Who is like the wise man? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens a man’s face and changes his hard appearance. Ecc 8:1
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Da 12:3
And it’s not our own light; we are simply to reflect the true light within us because,
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Jn 8:12
HE is the light that should be shining within us – as we reflect His light so brilliantly that it cuts through the fog of this world.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. Eph 5:8
LIVE AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT!
How do you do this? How do you become a reflection of Christ? Ask. Ask Him to change you into the person he designed you to be before time began. Do you trust Him? Does He want the best for you? Doesn’t his act of love, sacrificing his life for you prove it? Then ask. STOP READING THIS AND ASK NOW!! What are you waiting for? He will answer you.
Let us live as Children of Light such that the world will say, “We must have what they have. We don’t understand it. But we want it too.” Then we can share the Good News, the gift of the Light of Life, so they too can share in the brilliance of our Savior.
All His Very Best to You and Yours, Shine On!
Neighbor Tom