We are all guilty of it – grumbling about a rainy day. We are so self-absorbed with our own comfort and convenience that we fail to appreciate one of God’s greatest miracles. While it might spoil your picnic plans, those clouds, and the rain they bring, are a critical component of our environment.
On brighter days, when fluffy white clouds float across the sky and bring a pleasant accent to a beautiful sky, we are more likely to admire the beauty of nature. We may even appreciate the brief respite we get when a cloud temporarily blocks a scorching sun. Less obvious to the casual observer, night clouds keep us from getting too cool when the sun’s heat is absent.
It is probably safe to say that we seldom pause to reflect on the miracle those clouds represent.
Science gives clouds a variety of names or classifications, depending on their composition, height, water content and other factors. Weather forecasters study clouds to predict pending weather changes, and many of us do the same, although with less accuracy than the pros.
Comprised of water vapor or ice crystals, clouds may also contain dust or sea salt, and may transport other lightweight matter clear across the globe. Clouds may contain soot from forest fires or dust from a sand storm thousands of miles away.
But, the most important task of a cloud is the transport of water.
Clouds form as warm, moist air rises, either from bodies of water or evaporation from vegetation. That moisture condenses as the air cools, forming water droplets that hover in the air to form a cloud. When the water droplets combine and become too heavy, gravity causes them to fall as rain or snow. That rainfall then provides moisture for plant life and feeds the lakes and rivers that provide an environment for aquatic life.
It is a long, complex process, and science can explain virtually every step in that process.
What science cannot explain is how such a process came to be in the first place. It is an involved process that combines temperature ranges, gravity, sunlight, chemistry, air currents, and any number of known and unknown factors.
In short, it is an engineering feat that defies explanation. It is an engineering feat that is beyond human abilities or imagination. It is a combination of events and circumstances that defies the label of accidents of nature.
Perhaps it can only be explained as the work of the universe’s Chief Engineer.