There is a strange phenomenon which I have only begun hearing about in weather reports. The weather reporter called it "virga." While showing radar images of what looked to be real echoes of rain covering much of central Texas, he assured his audience with "what you are seeing is virga and though it appears on the screen, it is just water vapor that soon disappear." It sure looked like rain on the screen, though.

So, I went to the National Weather Service website and they have a glossary of terms for lay people. There it was, "virga-wisps of precipitation falling from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground." It's the proverbial, "Now you see it, now you don't" phenomenon.

How so much like life is the concept of "virga." In the past several months, I've had several friends who have died, some at relatively young ages. Though it saddens me, I am encouraged by the fact that they were all Christians who were believers in Christ and confident in their eternal destiny. But funerals have a way of forcing us to face our own mortality; to cause us to consider our own destiny. This is not to be morbid, but is an important and necessary part of living responsibly before an Almighty Creator.

James, as well, tells us that this is the very reason why we must trust in God and not in our own abilities:

"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."-James 4:13-15.

Virga; It's a mist, but then so are we! It's something to think about.

Tom Nuckels