A Morning Cloud

I routinely tell my students that there are 3 kinds of people in this world:

1. The kind who see someone get hit by a bus, realize that it hurts, and avoid walking out in front of buses.
2. The kind who have to get hit by the bus before they believe that it hurts.
3. The kind who get hit by the bus multiple times and keep jumping out in front, expecting it to feel good, despite all evidence and experience to the contrary.

I'll leave it to my audience's imagination in which category most of my students fall. On a personal level, though, that's one of the reasons I like reading biographies. If I can learn from the lives of others, both what they did well and the mistakes they made, then perhaps I don't have to necessarily experience something in order to understand it. 

That's why the Steve Jobs biography was worth my time. Despite the fact that he is a completely different person from a different generation with a different faith structure and skills in an industry I don't understand, the read was worth my time. It's also why reading the Old Testament is worthwhile as well. Too often the Old Testament is discarded, especially the minor prophets that I've been reading as of late. It's easy to see those books as ancient writing about ancient people in an ancient world, with little bearing on the here and now. (Also, God does an awful lot of smiting in the Old Testament, and people aren't necessarily thrilled to hear about those parts.)

Here's the thing, though: people are people. The Israelites are a mirror for present day humanity, communicating to us likely mistakes and triumphs, highlighting the way people act who alternate between chasing God and doing their damndest to ignore him. In them, I see me. And unfortunately, instead of watching them get hit by the bus and learning from it, it feels an awful lot like watching myself in a bloopers reel, blindly jumping out in front of the bus time and time again.

In the book of Hosea, God makes a point about Israel, comparing them to a prostitute whoring themselves out to the highest bidder, dressing up daily for cheap thrills while discarding God. When that doesn't work, when they are in despair about their daily lives in shambles, they call out to God. 

God has seen this video before. He's seen it since the beginning of man, through generation after generation of followers, seen it in Hosea's time and in me in my youth, in my 20's, and now in my 30's. Because of that, God can wisely respond, "Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud." (Hosea 6:4)

I can often arrogantly read through the silly mistakes of the Israelites, their obstinate and stupid behavior causing them to chase their own shadows in the wilderness and under other rulers over and over again. As soon as I get comfortable and smug, a verse like that one smacks me into reality. Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud. Unpredictable, fleeting, faint, the cloud may be back tomorrow, or it may be a while before it is seen again. My faithfulness is a morning cloud.

I've learned a lot from my survey of the minor prophets. Most of all, I've learned about what the buses look like that I seem to love to jump in front of. The picture is discomforting, as it must be. But the more I watch film of that bus, the better chance I'll have of missing it tomorrow. Or perhaps the next day. After all, I'm a morning cloud.