Pastor Larson’s Corner: The cloud

I recently replaced my laptop computer, and I recruited my grandson to help me get things set up. I was particularly concerned about my email account with its treasure of contacts and old emails. My grandson tried to comfort me by saying that we should be able to retrieve all of this information from the “cloud.” The cloud evidently exists somewhere in space and acts as a storage center for everything and anything on your computer that you want to store there.

When I learned about the cloud, I was struck by the name the computer world chose for this invisible place. It seems they have chosen a name for this all-important place that reflects the mystery and wonder that characterizes computers generally. As a child I thought of the clouds as part of the heavens and certainly not far from where God lived and watched over us. Perhaps the person who came up with this name for a giant computer storage area in the sky remembered having some of those same feelings.

As I worked with my grandson on my computer, I was amazed by the fact that he took the cloud so much for granted. Although he cannot see it or even explain it, he believes in it and trusts in it explicitly. In many ways people of faith feel the same way about God. They have not seen God and do not know where exactly God resides, and yet they believe completely that God exists. In some ways God is very much like the computer “cloud”—out of sight but, for people of faith, never out of mind. Perhaps if young people today can believe so completely in things like the cloud, they may also believe in God who has chosen to care about them and love them completely.

Pastor Larson’s Corner is written by Jerry Larson and appears weekly in the Norwegian American Weekly.

Pastor Jerry Larson retired to his cabin in Zimmerman, Minn., after 39 years in parish ministry for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2011 he published a book entitled “Speaking the Word Freely: Writing with purpose, preaching with power.” Contact him at jerlarson@visi.com

This article originally appeared in the Sept. 4, 2015, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly.