He's Coming with the Clouds
“Hoo! Hoo!---Hoo! Hoo!” my twenty-month-old daughter chants at the television, tiny fists raised in the air, bouncing up and down on the couch–using her trusty little heels for leverage. What’s occurring on our television screen is a fictional aquatic ritual event among saltwater fishes who are inviting Nemo into their “fraternal bonds of tankhood”, and they’re chanting something that sounds like elementary school vowel exercises, “Ah Oh Wah Eee AH Oh Oh Oh...”. When Nemo successfully completes his initiation, my daughter then shouts, “SHARKAKE!” which, translated, is Nemo’s new nickname, “Sharkbait.”
Over the course of the last month, we have probably watched the Disney film Finding Nemo nearly two hundred times, per my daughter’s persistent requests. “Why so much screen time?” one may wonder, because two-hundred replays of Finding Nemo in thirty days would give me pause, too. Unfortunately, the entire month of February (with the exception of about a week and a half), we were all sick, especially the greater part of the latter half. We’d come downstairs after a sleepless night, eat breakfast, watch “NEMO!”, play outside, eat lunch, then watch “NEMO!” again.
You know how the more you read, watch, or listen to something, the more you learn? Especially if it’s multidimensional in depth and creativity, time is necessary to effectively dissect each constituent and understand how all the pieces fit together. Personally, at first glance, Finding Nemo never would have crossed my mind as a multifaceted screening packed with tender layers of meaning. But, due to my daughter’s innocent affinity for this movie and the amount of times I have joyfully watched it beside her, I recognize something different each time.
Now I don’t agree with all motifs and thematic elements of Disney movies—my husband and I vet each one prior—but there is something in Finding Nemo that has touched my heart and now gives me chills each time I watch it. It’s the part when Nemo is stuck in the fish tank at the dentist’s office after Gill’s escape plan fails, and he is so heartbroken and discouraged that he will ever see his father again—to the point he doubts his father is even looking for him. Until...moments later, their pelican friend, Nigel, breathlessly flies up to the window to exclaim to Nemo the story he just heard about HIS father... “the fish fighting the entire ocean” and is on his way to Sydney, Australia to rescue his son. At first, Nemo doubts it’s really even him, but when Nigel confirms that it is, Nemo springs back to life. The knowledge that HIS FATHER was on his way to rescue him filled him with a newfound courage, confidence, and tenacity, which gave him the internal strength he needed to execute Gill’s aforementioned escape plan with success.
It propelled him forward in mind, heart, body, soul, and spirit.
Now imagine... what would that look like for YOU if you woke up every morning with a fire and absolute assurance knowing that YOUR FATHER fights for you in even greater ways, and He IS coming back for you, His bride. What would you do? What would you do differently? How would you approach your giants? How would you fight your battles? This supernatural altering of your thinking and resetting of your neuron pathways—your brain chemistry—has the ability to change the trajectory of your life.
You know the greatest commandment Jesus left us with? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38 NKJV). Part of loving the Lord our God with all our mind is believing in Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent as a ransom for us.
You know what unravels our minds the quickest? Unbelief.
You know what “unbelief” is the root of? Anxiety, fear, anger, depression, addiction, to name a few.
“Unbelief” means: an absence of faith; distrust. Unbelief is different than its sibling “disbelief” which is the inability to accept that something is true or real, because unbelief documents an ABSENCE; disbelief does not document an absence, but rather a presence of something that is difficult to entirely comprehend...but it’s there. Unbelief is an absence, and it’s associated with atheism. The difference is: the unbelief of an atheist doesn’t affect them; they have no conviction because they don’t have the Holy Spirit. However, when a believer is plagued by unbelief, it causes anxiety. Believers DO have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit convicts us; it’s our flesh that does the wrestling.
To be clear, God does not cause anxiety. The Holy Spirit convicts; Satan guilts, and anxiety is a byproduct of guilt. Peacefulness, one of the nine fruits of the Spirit, comes when we are in harmony with and abiding in God. Anxiety is not a fruit of the Spirit—it occurs because we have moved out of harmony with God and God’s thoughts and have deviated to the flesh. God did not cause us to move out of harmony with Him... we, being creatures of free will, whether consciously or subconsciously, chose to.
A dear mentor of mine spoke these words over me recently:
"Although you have struggled to trust Him, His love for you changes not. You need to remind yourself of the attributes of God."
Nemo didn’t trust the character of his father, but his father was coming after him anyway.
I have struggled to trust the character of my Father, but my Father is coming after me anyway.
I invite you to fill in the blank for yourself, as the Holy Spirit counsels you:
Although I have ______________, His love for me changes not.
I have ______________, but my Father is coming after me anyway.
Be specific. Surrender it. Lay it at the Lord’s feet. Repent and grab hold of the grace to which He has lavished on you, and press on, brothers and sisters.
His love for you changes not.
Jesus commanded and promised, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." John 14:1-3 | ESV
“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him our of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” Acts 1:9-11 | ESV
“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” Revelation 1:7-8
Our Lord is coming back for us, brothers and sisters. The time has been set, known only by God the Father, and Jesus Messiah is coming back soon. The Bridegroom will claim His Bride and “take [us] to [Himself]”. Believe Him, believe His written word He’s gifted us, and be encouraged to live the breath of life we’ve been given with the confidence that no matter where you’ve been and what you’ve done or what’s been done to you, the blood of Jesus Christ covers it all, and your Father is coming after you anyway.
