Coming on the Clouds

There have been some lovely clouds recently; different, beautiful shapes forming and re-forming. I think they are wonderful, and like Elihu I wonder how the clouds are balanced, those ‘wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge’. (Job 37:16) I also find myself wondering what sort of cloud the Lord Jesus will return on. A sunset one perhaps, lit up by the rays of the setting sun in shades of apricot and gold. Or maybe with the dawn, as Frances Ridley Havergal puts it:

Coming! In the opening east
Herald brightness slowly swells;
Coming! O my glorious Priest,
Hear we not Thy golden bells?

But of course it doesn’t really matter. Nimbus or stratus, cumulus or cirrus, what really matters is that He is coming, and I shall see Him as He is. And in the meantime, to quote Matthew Henry, ‘May our expectation of our Master’s second coming be steadfast and joyful, giving diligence to be found of him blameless.’

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Matthew 25:13

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Revelation 1:7

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Revelation 22:20