Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday and Monday, September 27 and 28, 2026
I’m a sky-gazer. It’s an inexpensive hobby, and richly rewarding. Sometimes I’ll take a break from being too much indoors and step out on our front steps and look up and around to see what the sky is “up to” at the moment.
And I do mean, “at the moment,” because the sky and its contents do not stand still. This is why I often holler back over my shoulder, with urgency, “Come, quick, before it’s gone!” The “it” may be a rainbow or a flock of pigeons rolling and tumbling in the air, or a stunning sunset.
Often it’s the shape and texture of clouds, as in the photo above. I viewed them, not from our front steps, but while we were on our neighborhood walk. I did then what I’m doing now – I grinned.
What do you see when you look at these clouds? I picture someone, maybe me, scampering up this flight of stairs that leads upward from cloud to cloud – on my way to heaven. I’m not good with heights, so it’s a bit strange that the thought makes me smile, rather than cringe! I guess I’m trusting the Creator of clouds, and of me, to watch over me as I ascend.
Coming back to earth, from my flight of fancy (flight of stairs fancy), I think of people we read about in the Bible who have “climbed the clouds” to heaven:
So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:23-24)
Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11)
Enoch’s route to heaven is hard to picture; all we know is “God took him.” Elijah’s, in contrast, could not have been more dramatic. I’ve heard and read these accounts many times over the years, but not until this moment have I paused to wonder what Enoch and Elijah thought and felt as they were suddenly transported from earth to heaven.
And then there was, and wasn’t, Jesus. He had lingered forty days after His resurrection, encouraging and equipping His disciples as He turned the mission over to them. After some final words to them, He left:
Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)
Yes, He will! We have His word on it. As we say earthly good-byes, we are told how to comfort one another:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (I Thessalonians 4:16-18 NKJV)
And that’s when my sky-gazing hobby will be the most richly rewarded!