Have You Hugged Your Atmosphere Today? - [Sharon]

I love the sky. I love its vastness. I love the way it can be any number of colors: blue, grey, white, black, or even during various sunsets or storms, it can be purple and pink.

In truth, the sky never really changes colors. What we see when we look up at it are really only variations in a host of different factors, including pressure, temperature, precipitation, you name it. But it is certainly awe inspiring to see it at its most beautiful, with a veritable pallet on display. I guess mostly I love the way, when you see the sky, it is comforting, because no matter how it appears, it is always there. It is consistent. You may forget it for a moment, and take for granted that it is there, but it has not gone away. And until the world ends, it will not.

Weirdly, “the sky” as we call it, is not really an entity in and of itself. It is the name we have given our atmosphere, made up of trillions and trillions of particles, that fills in all the space left by absence of mass here on this planet. The sky is, truly, everywhere that objects including us, are not. But we have put a name on it, and made it a singular name at that. The sky. I guess it makes it seem more comprehensible to think of it that way. I mean, what if we were to think of it as it really is: seven miles of troposphere, thirty-one miles of stratosphere, fifty-three miles of mesosphere, seventy-five miles of thermosphere, merging into exosphere, and becoming one with space, then outer space, etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum? Wow. How much easier to say “the sky.”

In addition, we usually don’t think about the fact that we are indeed walking around in “the sky,” every time we are outside. I remember in grammar school, when I was first drawing pictures, I would always depict the sky as a blue line, about and inch and a half thick, straight across the top of the page. It wasn’t until I was older that I started grasping the concept of the sky being all the way down in the background of the whole picture. And then it was a real eye-opening experiment for me to haltingly spread the crayon down, all the way behind the house, and tree, and grass, and flowers in my picture. It seemed scary to me. Is this even possible? Won’t it look crazy? But it didn’t. It looked more real. And then I was glad I had stepped out and given it a shot. I breathed a sigh of relief. The sky really was all around us, and my understanding of it had grown to be able to depict it as it really was. I did not have to keep it way up above, safely detached from everything below it.

So, I guess the analogy is as clear as can be. He has so many facets, but He is always the same loving Father. His colors really only change as we experience different things here in this life. We are viewing Him through a vast array of atmospheric conditions. But He is never a different God. He encompasses every attribute of the Person He is, at all times, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

It is easier for us to see Him as “God,” a name which helps us understand how we can relate to Him. He is made up of three distinct Persons, which we can only spend so much time trying to grasp, before it is easier to just refer to Him as “God,” and vaguely know on an intellectual level that there is much, much more to Him than that.

Every once in a while, we put our finger on the fact that we are walking around in His Spirit at all times. This can be alternately comforting and frightening. After all, He is “God.” We can certainly never fully comprehend this, but occasionally, as with rain or humidity, we can feel Him. His Presence becomes truly palpable, and with our limited sensory perception, we awaken to the fact that He is with us. At those times, we realize that it is safe to experience Him in this way. He is good, and the fact that He surrounds us, and we are actually in Him, only makes this life more real. And the more we invite Him into every minute of our lives, the more we will not desire to go back. We like the way He makes our lives more multi-dimensional. Even if it takes more time, and a bit more input from us, we want to include Him in all aspects of our lives.

Like I said, I love the sky. It may not always do what I want it to do, and I may take its beauty for granted more often than I’d like, but its richness is undeniable. My life is made possible by it’s very existence. Every bit of it, as far as my reasoning mind can travel.

It is good.