Clues From Clouds, Part 1

Do you ever enjoy looking up at the clouds?  I used to lay in the grass with my camera and weather notebook quite frequently, fascinated by the way the clouds overhead grew or changed shape.  My favorite way to watch the clouds was to climb up on the roof of my house to watch a beautiful sunset just before the stars came out.  Although things have changed a little over the years and I rarely get the chance to go cloud watching anymore, I still love the sky.

At first glance, clouds may not seem especially interesting.  After all, they’ve been up there in the sky all our lives.  It can be easy to take them for granted and forget how incredible they really are.  Think about it for a second: enormous blobs of water or ice float in the air sometimes hundreds or thousands of feet overhead.  They shelter us from too much heat during the day because the bright white color of clouds works almost like a mirror, reflecting sunlight.  On the other hand, clouds also keep our planet from getting too cold at night by trapping the day time heat (almost like a blanket) so that it doesn’t all escape to space.

Of course, clouds are a very important part of our water cycle, spreading rain and snow (generally called precipitation) all over the earth.  Without this precipitation, life as we know it would not be possible.  I live in an area that was experiencing a very severe drought over the last few years, and from this experience I can tell you that being short on rain can get bad very fast.  We take for granted that rain will come, crops will grow, and food and water will always be available when we need them.  We must remember that we are frail and dependent on God.  If you have not had a chance to look at the January issue of Creation Clues for Kids on the topic of water, be sure to check it out here.  Be sure to look for next week’s creation clue where we will talk more about clouds and beautiful sunbeams.