Cloudy Skies

I was driving down the road and noticed all the clouds in the sky

I notice the clouds a lot

I stare at the sky often

It’s like my happy place where I can sit and watch God create beauty

A lot of times I think he is just showing off how awesome of an artist he is

Often there are lots of clouds in the sky

But today I noticed something different

Today they were layered

One layer of clouds after the other

All different colors and sizes

As I continued driving towards them my mind wandered

Layers upon layers of clouds

But what would happen if I peeled back these layers of clouds?

One layer at a time if I ripped the clouds away

What would I see?

Eventually the layers would run out

And I would be staring at a beautifully colored yet cloudless sky

My heart is like this cloudless sky

It’s beautiful and whole and radiant

But so often I hid it

I don’t want to go to the hard places with people

I don’t want to be vulnerable

I don’t want to expose the deepest parts of my heart

So I start layering the clouds on

Layer after layer I cover my heart up

Until all you see is dark nastiness

The beauty can’t be seen

The radiance is hidden

Today the clouds were blocking me

From being able to see the beauty of God’s clear sky

There was no happiness or sunshine radiating for me to see

And this is how my life looks a lot of times

I have these layers hiding my joy and happiness

I keep myself hidden and people don’t see sunshine radiating from me

As I kept driving the layers upon layers of clouds slowly began to disappear

With each layer that was removed I began to see a little more blue in the sky

The sun began to shine a little brighter for me to see

Until all of the clouds were washed away

And before me God had created a beautiful blue, sunshiny, cloudless sky

My favorite part about the sky today

Was it is exactly like me

When I begin to pull back those layers

When I begin to let people truly see my heart

When I decide to go into those hard, deep places with people

Then my heart shines radiantly

My heart is beautiful and whole and beaming for others to see

What layers do you need to remove so your heart is fully exposed to others?