The phrase “every cloud has a silver lining” is meant to give us hope that there is always something good in even the darkest circumstances. In clothing, a lining hides all of the interconnecting panels and seams and helps to hold the whole garment together. If we think about a cloud having a silver lining, then that lining is actually holding the cloud together and making it last longer, which is often the opposite of what we want when we're going through a hard time. Moreover, the fact that it is specifically a silver lining is also very important. Silver is one of the most reflective materials on Earth. They use actual silver in most household mirrors to make them reflective. So if we are going through a black cloud and we try to put a brave face on it and coat that black cloud in a silver lining, then all we are doing is keeping the cloud together longer and making sure that all we can see is our own pain and fear reflected back onto us by the reflective silver of that lining. And if we see someone else going through a black cloud and we try to “reassure” them with a silver lining, all we're really doing is wrapping them up in a shiny, reflective surface so that we can stop looking at them and how depressing their life is and we can get back to looking at us and how much better our life is than theirs. Not only that, but by giving their cloud a silver lining, we make the cloud stronger and more likely to hold together and last longer. This is the sentiment embodied by the phrase “there but for the grace of God go I.” But there is another way. Silver, as part of the compound silver iodide, is used to seed clouds. Millions of microscopic particles of silver iodide are dispersed all through a cloud to encourage it to rain and disperse. A silver lining encourages us to focus on ourselves and to ignore the fact that we are in the middle of dark clouds and hard times. Silver linings are an illusion that we cling to because we are afraid to be a part of the black cloud. But if we put our trust in the Lord and allow Him to cut up that silver lining into a million pieces and scatter them all throughout the clouds, then He can seed the storms we face with tiny particles of His tender mercies. Once we have let go of the fact that our life has to be shiny and perfect and instead allow ourselves to get sad and angry and depressed and just let the storms rage, then we can let those millions of glittering silver seeds break up the clouds and let the blessings of Heaven rain down on us instead. We don't need to perfectly hold it together and hide away all of the seams and cracks in our life with some perfect silver lining. I hope we can all be brave enough to face the blackness of the clouds in our lives as they really are, and to look for the glittering, tender mercies of the Lord sown like millions of little seeds that are slowly but surely breaking up the clouds around us.
