My friend, Doug Kreighbaum, talked last weekend about the ancient mystics believing in a Cloud of Mystery. When they encountered issues in life that were too hard-to-explain, they just tucked those away inside the Cloud and left them for God to sort out.

I like that. If we can send files, manuscripts, movies, and blogs out into The Cloud for storage, why not problems? Why not take the questions-too-big-to-answer and send them to the Cloud of Mystery to be solved another day. Maybe another eon, in fact.

When the Fed-Ex driver told me recently that his two-month old son had died of SIDS during his first day of daycare, I didn’t know about the cloud. But, I did know about the pain. This young dad looked at me with sad eyes and said, “People tell you God is good, but I just don’t get this.”

I kind of wanted to run screaming from this sudden, unexpected moment of vulnerability. Instead, I said, “I don’t get it, either. I didn’t get it when my baby granddaughter died. And I don’t get it now.”

We just stood in the doorway for a minute, both of us staring at the ground, and then I said, “Some things , like this loss, we will never understand on this side of eternity. And yet, God is good. I’m not sure how those two things work together. I just know they do.”

He nodded, thanked me, and climbed back into his truck. I knew I hadn’t been eloquent. I hadn’t known how to impart faith to him. Or comfort. Or hope. I hadn’t known how to explain that God really can be trusted with great mysteries and great sorrows because His ways are so much higher than our ways. I simply didn’t now what to say.

When I see him next time, though, I’m telling him about The Cloud.