Nephomantic Skies

We sometimes have some dramatic cloud cover in the skies around Martin Top. I have often wondered if there was ever some attempt at fortune telling or divination by looking at cloud shapes. Sure enough, there is, and it is called nephomancy, which is a form of aeromancy (divination by atmospheric conditions) which is likely to be a form of pareidolia (seeing meaning in a visual object where there is none). These words are new to me, too, I must confess. The only insight which I can detect from these pictures is that I ought to have brought an umbrella.

Although there will be signs in the sky ahead of Christ’s return, we are generally better at predicting the weather than seeing great spiritual truth before our very noses:

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing [Jesus] asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Matthew 16, New King James Version

Before you attempt to interpret cloud formations, apply the clear teaching of scripture: Christ is coming back to judge the living and the dead -are you ready?