Contemplative Bible Reading

Jude verse 12 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs at your love feasts. They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn – fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots,

Jude is writing to Christians about “ungodly men.” He describes these ungodly men with several hundred words. Most of the words used by Jude draw pictures. Many of the words in the few verses of Jude’s letter caught my eye and caused me to draw such pictures. One phrase in verse 12 caused a particular mark in my mind – “waterless clouds.”

I once lived in a desert. It was dry there – I mean it was really dry there. For entertainment, (this is an indication of how bored we were) we would take a pair of blue jeans that were made of heavy cotton and soak them in water. We would take this dripping wet pair of heavy jeans and hang it on a clothes line to see how quickly it would turn stone dry. It didn’t take long. (For lots of entertainment, we would do the same in the dead of winter. The jeans would quickly freeze, but then, just as fast as in the summer, they would dry. Yes, we were bored.)

Anyways, we had plenty of clouds in this dry desert. Great big beautiful clouds in the otherwise clear blue sky. Practically none of these big beautiful clouds had any water. They just teased us with the thought of rain. They were worthless. Sure, they gave us a little shade now and then, but we didn’t need shade to live; we needed water, and these clouds didn’t deliver any water.

Jude tells us that this is one of the characteristics of ungodly men. They look like they can bring something useful, something we need like love, compassion, charity, patience, and many other things that godly men and women bring, but they bring none of that. They are merely waterless clouds. Worthless.

God, help me to be a cloud filled with water. Help me to bring what godly men and women bring to this world, what they bring to one another.