The five clouds

Do you think that this is a normal bench in a forest? No, it isn´t! Almost 30 years ago I was sitting on this bench watching an extraordinary miracle.

At that time, at the beginning of 1986,  I was at the age of 28 and and a very convinced young Christian. Half a year ago, in the midst of 1985, I had accepted Christ as my Savior after dramatic experiences (click here) . Without any doubts I knew that God was real and His presence had become my daily bread. It was beyond my imagination that this state could ever change. But, it happened!

One morning I heard a radio news of a 30000-year-old sceleton that had been found in Africa, and within a moment found myself in deep trouble, in a crisis of faith. How could it be, as - following the Bible -  Adam and Eve lived 6000 years ago?
   I was confused, and I asked myself: Were my experiences with God real, or only an illusion? Had I become a member of a sect, as my parents had said? It was definetely a moment when I could have lost my faith. So, I prayed and asked God to help me. After that I walked out of my home into the nearer surroundings.
   
Half an hour later I came to the place on the photo above. No one else was there. I was sitting sadly on that bench and thought about nothing special. In front of me I had a far-reaching view, as you can see in the next photo: 

It was not such a cloudy day. There was a blue sky and only a few clouds were visible.
   After some minutes sitting on the bench and looking indifferently into the distance, I suddenly noticed five clouds in a row. "Funny", I thought, "they are looking someway like letters. I focussed my view and suddenly I realized that this cloudy letters formed a word. And then I stared  unbelievingly into the sky. There I could read clearly the word:

(Of course, it´s not an original picture. It only should give you an imagination of what I´ve seen)

I was stunned. Could that be? Was there really written this word in the sky? I rose from the bench, walked a little bit to the right, then to the left, always fixed my eyes at that word. It was obviously: Without any doubts there was the name Jesus written at the sky. And immediately Iknew that this was the answer to my prayer.
   The Bible tells about Jesus: "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved." (Acts 4,12) And this name I could now read in the sky!
  I knelt down and thanked God for this great revelation! Then I rose up and went away not looking back once more.

As I told at the beginning, this event happened almost 30 years ago. But it stabilized my faith and - perhaps - gave me the firmness to keep faith later in difficult circumstances, who knows!? 
  Actually, I never again doubted earnestly that God is real and Jesus my Savior. And what was about the 30 000 years-skeleton and Adam and Eve? Believe me, this couldn´t trouble my faith any longer!


So, if you want to read more about my experiences with God and Jesus, you should go    my Homepage




    

A poor man - rich of stories?

Here is a very famous German picture from Carl Spitzweg:







We can see some daylight falling through the small window in the background into a dark room. So we cannot clearly see the fitting out of this room, but it gives us the impression of poverty and neglect.

In the center of the picture we see an old man lying in a bed and holding some papers in his left hand. Some books are lying in the near of the bed on a small table. The man seemed to be in a relaxed mood!

So what is going on with that man? Is he sick or lazy? Or tired of normal life and has retired into the privacy? We do not know. Many reasons are possible. But the painter has given us a hint. He called the picture

"The poor poet"!

So we can presume, that he is a writer. Perhaps a thinker or a philosoph. Perhaps someone who has lived an exciting, extraordinary life. We do not know!

But in my phantasy he is someone, who is filled with stories. And now the time has come to write them down.-

What is your phantasy?

Suffering and ignorance -part ouf our nature?

Someone suffers, but normal life goes on. Is that normal, part of our nature? I think it is?

I am always fascinated, when in docufilms of Africa an animal is chased by beasts, and the members of its herd are going on with eating as if nothing would happen.-

***

I was looking for something in wikipedia according to the theme suffering and found this:

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

This Breughel's painting is among those that inspired W.H. Auden's poem Musée des Beaux Arts :

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
(...)
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; (...) ^[7]

And it remembered me at a scene yesterday at night. On my way home I came along an asyl of "homeless men" and I saw firemen and police in front of it . Obviously there had be some burning inside, but nothing too seriously.

So police and firemen were doing in a blocked off area their jobs and some people including me were watching it curiously.

Suddenly two young girls came along and one of them discovered a girl friend standing there. Cheers, big hellos, hugging and exciting small talk without looking at the building anymore. I think you can imagine the scene quite well ...

During that time out of the building came two sanitaries with a half-naked man and lead him to an ambulance, unnoticed by the cheerful girls ...

So, how would Breughel have painted his picture today?