About LITC

In 2008 we (Greg & Elijah) started a blog with some colleagues called Criticism As Inspiration. From there, we decided to branch out in our own direction and launch this sister blog – ‘Lost in the Cloud’. The name of our blog comes from the coda of Sufjan Stevens’ ‘The Transfiguration’ from his 2004 album Seven Swans.

The primary icon for our blog is composed of a cloud with the Hebrew letter ‘yod’ ( י ) within. Drawing from symbols and events within the Bible (see a short list of Bible references below⁜) and the Judeo-Christian tradition (‘yod’ being the first letter in the Name of God, the Tetragrammaton), this motif was originally designed by Elijah in 2004 to symbolise the presence of God in human history.

We are ‘lost in the cloud’ because an encounter with God’s presence is the way we encounter life—obscure yet beautiful, terrifying yet comforting, mysterious yet revelatory, disorienting yet oriented—and perhaps that should come as no surprise…

We hope to provide thoughtful insights on culture, religion and anything else we find interesting enough to share.

G & E

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⁜Here are just some of the large number of examples of God’s presence via ‘cloud’ imagery in the Bible:

Genesis 1:2 – The [Spirit of] God hovering over the waters of the Creation; 9:16 – The bow in the clouds is a symbol of the everlasting covenant between God and man after the Flood narrative.
Exodus 13:21-22 – God leads the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness via a cloud by day; 24:15-18 – God’s glory took the form of a cloud over Mount Sinai when God gave the Law to Moses.
Leviticus 16:13 – A cloud from God is to cover the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant during the Day of Atonement.
Numbers 9:22 – God’s glory in a cloud rested above the tabernacle.
1 Kings 8:10-11 – God’s glory entered the holy place of Solomon’s temple as a cloud.
2 Maccabees 2:8 – The glory of the God and the cloud appear simultaneously.
Psalms 97:2 – God is portrayed as covered in clouds; 99:7 – Recalling God’s historical speaking through a cloud to Moses, Aaron and Samuel.
Sirach 24:4 – The divine wisdom is speaking and states that its ‘throne was in a pillar of cloud.’
Isaiah 19:1 – During an oracle God is portrayed as riding on a swift cloud into Egypt.
Jeremiah 4:13 – God is portrayed as coming ‘up like clouds’ in judgment against Jerusalem.
Daniel 7:13 – The coming of the divine figure, the Son of Man, is ‘with the clouds of heaven’.
Matthew 17; Mark 9:2-29; Luke 9:28-36 – During the Transfiguration narratives within the Synoptic Gospels God envelops Sts Peter, John and James in a cloud while revealing his glory.
Matthew 24:30 – Christ points to the coming of the Son of Man ‘coming on the clouds’ in Daniel.
1 Corinthians 10:1-2 – St Paul mentions the presence of the cloud in the cult of Israel.
Revelation 1:7 – The return of Christ is to take place ‘in the clouds’.