Using the natural characteristics of air to illustrate the supernatural attributes of God, the Bible frequently associates His presence with phenomena such as light, wind, clouds, rainbows, or thunder. Most prominent of these is the glory cloud of God, which is symbolic of His heavenly dwelling place. During the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, “the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light” (Exodus 13:21). In Genesis 2:7 the creative activity of the Holy Spirit is identified as the breath of God who breathes life into man. And when Adam’s sin brings death upon all his descendants, God graciously sends His Spirit again in the breath of Christ (John 20:22) and as a “rushing mighty wind” at Pentecost (Acts 2:2) to bring new life to those who believe in the name of His Son. Just as air is essential for our physical life, so the Holy Spirit—the life-giving breath of God—is essential for our spiritual life.

Air has no color, yet the most spectacular colors in nature are seen in the sky. This is due to water droplets and impurities that act as tiny mirrors, prisms, or sponges reflecting, refracting, or absorbing different wavelengths of sunlight. Because the visible spectrum contains millions of colors, the display possibilities are virtually endless. At sunrise and sunset, when the oblique rays of the sun travel through more of the earth’s atmosphere, the shorter blue wavelengths of the spectrum are absorbed, and red or yellow clouds result. At midday when the sun is perpendicular to the earth, the red wavelengths are absorbed, and the sky appears more blue.

Do you know how the clouds are balanced, those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? Job 37:16

We can’t see it, feel it, hear it, or smell it, yet we would die in a matter of minutes without oxygen. We breathe it in and then breathe poisonous carbon dioxide out. Plants breathe the carbon dioxide in and then breathe oxygen out. Round and round it goes in perfectly balanced order. For water vapor to change from an airborne gas to liquid droplets, which are the building blocks of clouds, it must first bond with microscopic particles in the air. These tiny nuclei are usually particles of salt lifted into the air with evaporating ocean water. Thus the salt in seawater, which makes it undrinkable, is an unexpected helper in supplying freshwater for the earth.

The most dramatic cloud displays frequently occur in late afternoon on hot summer days. As surface air is heated by the sun-warmed earth, it becomes lighter than the cool air aloft, and it rises and expands in a convectional current. If the lift is strong enough and ample water vapor is present in the expanding air (as is common in the plains), it will rapidly condense into clouds that can often build into huge cumulonimbus thunderheads, sometimes reaching heights as great as sixty thousand feet above their bases. Often occurring at the end of the day and reflecting the colorful light of sunset, these clouds present a glorious and fitting symbol of God’s heaven.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! Psalm 8:1