The God Cloud

 

One day in late January 2013, God came to earth in the form of a large glowing cloud. Many religious orders across the world were surprised he had returned so early (since most did not believe it would happen in their lifetimes), and the conspiracy theorist bemoaned that He was twenty-nine days late. Though the glowing cloud never spoke, everyone assumed it was God because nothing could penetrate it and it tended to fill those beholding it with a sense of peace.

The most surprising thing about God's return, however, wasn't the date or the shape he took. It was that nothing changed. The Christians all assumed the cloud was their God, who glowed with the peaceful love of Jesus or burned with the righteous fury of an angry God looking to smite those nations that lost sight of His commandments. The Muslims knew the cloud to be their one true God because the Qu'ran mentions stars falling, and the glowing cloud appeared as though a star had fallen much closer to the earth. The reincarnationists viewed the cloud as a collection of all souls waiting to be reborn. The atheists decided even if it was God, they still wouldn't worship because of all the evil he let slide. Even the scientists continued on as they always had, saying that God or no God, it must be studied, quantified, and understood, for why do we have minds if not to understand the mysteries of the universe?

In the end, the glowing cloud drifted across the face of the world, and the world learned to shrug it off. No one behaved better because it was closer. People still prayed for lotto numbers and sports team victories instead of world peace and an end to poverty and hunger. The only real change was that many churches were constructed with transparent roofs, so preachers could point to the cloud when it was overhead as proof that what he said was true, or else why would God have chosen to be above this church at this very moment?

- Originally mailed to C. Munn in Keller, Texas