Clouds Illusions

"Clouds Illusions", 60X48, Janelle Jensen Fritz, 2008.

This past Saturday night I welcomed the nostalgia of the season from past years of attendance with my mother and sisters and went to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints annual Women's Meeting. I also brought a friend that attends a local Baptist church. I will admit the focus on temples didn't make me very comfortable. Thankfully, there was plenty that did. 

Symbolism is a way to my heart and spirit so I appreciated the apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf and his parabolic analogy. 
“Part of our challenge is, I think, that we imagine that God has all of His blessings locked in a huge cloud up in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with some strict, paternalistic requirements He has set up. But the commandments aren’t like that at all. In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us.”

#rainwithmybestie, photgraphed by Layna Mecham

I have to admit I have some tendencies towards the "all or nothing" Mormon mindset. My upbringing, the culture, my own understanding, has all contributed to this false interpretation. When I read the scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 82: 9-10  I saw the cloud, under lock and key... "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say, but when you do not what I say, ye have no promise." When Uchtdorf used the analogy of the umbrella, I was enlightened, grateful, and humbled. I felt the truth of his description. I knew that it wasn't God that was inhibiting the pouring out of the blessings when ever I "do not what he says," but it is dependent on my decisions, my alienation's, my umbrella, my sin which then prevents the "streams of mercy" which He bestows constantly from the clouds which I am realizing are not under lock and key.

"Lady in Red", Richard Bourgault, 2014 

"Now I, now I know I wish it will rain down, down on me
Oh I know I wish it will rain, rain down on me now
Oo... I wish it will rain down, down on me
Yes you know I wish it will rain down, rain down over me
Just rain down over me
Just let it rain down, let it rain down, let it rain down...
Oh yea let it rain down, rain, rain down over me
Just let it rain down,
Just let it rain down, let it rain down
Just let it rain" -Phil Collins