The sky is like God.
Hello. I am in Manipur, India. It’s beautiful – both the place and the people. I am in a small village, called Seilmat, which is surrounded by incredible mountains. The driving is terrifying and oddly exciting. There are no designated lanes… just large trucks, cars, taxi vehicle things, scooters, dogs, pedestrians, bicyclists, cows, etc…. swerving around each other with great skill as if they are all very late for something. Honking is a language… it means move and they use it a lot. It’s like real life Mario Kart. I’ve already learned so much from the people here and their incredible faith – it is one of the few places in India with a largely christian atmosphere. A lone missionary brought the gospel of John to their tribe in the early 1900s. Years later, a village boy named Rochunga Pudaite set out to create a written language for his people and translate the Bible into it – and he did it and was the founder of the organization we are partnering with here – Bibles for the World.
One spot in this impactful place that impacted me in a huge way is prayer mountain. We were brought there by Mawii Pudaite, the late Rochunga’s wife, who told us it was his favorite place to pray and spend time in the Lord’s presence, and I could see why. The Lord was so evident there and the view was amazing. As I sat and spent time listening to the Lord I heard him speak to me about the sky.
I know what you are thinking… this is going to be weird and I should stop reading… but just hold on. It’s good. I promise… because it’s his words, not mine. The sky is a reflection of the Lord. It is a constant. It remind me of home because it was there too. You never doubt that the sky will be there… it just is. God is too. Even if we put up ceilings to try to minimize it’s effects in our lives, it is still there. You can’t run from it. Sometimes the sky gets gray and cloudy and rains and sometimes the sun is burning so intensely that we can’t look up – reminding us that God feels too and sometimes He cries and sometimes He is bursting with joy. The sky looks over slums and royal palaces alike… and it looks over the President of the USA and a starving child with no preference. It is not equal… though. It presents itself in different, masterful ways and reveals impeccable beauties – but one day I may see a sunset that is to die for and my brother may see only dark grey clouds. God doesn’t care about equality – he didn’t give us all perfectly equal talents and gifts and doesn’t bless us all equally in life. We don’t all get a beautiful sky today. Moreover, Matthew 5:45 reads “for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust”. The sky doesn’t react according to our actions. More on this later. The sky brings rain and purifies… and the sky brings a fierce light to the world that is impossible to ignore. It is what allows us to live- to function- to be. This light allows plants to grow and us to see. These correlations are all pretty self explanatory. The sky is so vast that we could never begin to see it all – we don’t possess that level of understanding – but we know that it will remain and never doubt it’s abilities or how it works. We don’t think we or anything else on this earth is bigger than the sky… so then why do we place ourselves above God sometimes (or a lot of the time for me)? The sun is autonomous and we live according to it. We don’t think it made a mistake when it is raining, because the nature of the sky is that sometimes it rains and we reach for an umbrella instead of doubting or questioning the weather. Similarly, we should not doubt the Lord when times get rough, but instead prepare for those times by holding His word in our hearts and holding onto Him like we would an umbrella.
The sky is like God. I challenge you to remember to trust in his constant presence every time you look up.
