Jerwillikers Nimbus was a young cloud who just couldn't sit still. The other clouds found him rather hard to take. They would start talking to him, then Whoops!--suddenly, he was gone. The same thing happened whenever he joined in a cloud game. After five minutes the other clouds would all be calling out, "Jerwillikers, where are you? It's your turn." But Jerwillikers would be nowhere to be found.

So Jerwillikers had a hard time making friends. Actually, Jerwillikers didn't have any friends. This wasn't because Jerwillikers was mean, or didn't like the other clouds. In fact, he would have loved to be friendly. And he would have loved to be helpful like Horace, or artistic like Pinky. But when the 'jumpies' came on him, he just couldn't help himself. It was all he could do to keep himself from jumping clear out of the atmosphere.

Early one morning, Jerwillikers looked down below and saw an unusual sight -- a large army surrounding a little walled-in town. The soldiers all held spears in one hand and shields in the other, and were jeering and sneering in a very nasty way. "Ha, ha", Jerwillikers heard one say, "their goose is cooked now. We'll teach this town to make friends with our enemies!" Jerwillikers could tell that these men were not good. The men, women, and children of the town were trembling as they peered out over the wall at the army surrounding them.

Then Jerwillikers saw another band of men quickly and quietly coming up behind the encircling army. The leader of the band raised his spear, looked up to the sky, and spoke to the sun: "Now stand still". Jerwillikers had been so interested in what was going on down below that he'd forgotten all about jumping. When he saw the man look up at him and say "stand still", he realized that he HAD been standing still for a long, long time. Suddenly, standing still became the LAST thing Jerwillikers wanted to do! The jumpies got hold of him something fierce! He got so excited he began dropping huge hailstones on the encircling army. They took off running, and he took off after them flashing lightning, roaring thunder, and dumping hailstones. He was having a blast! He was so caught up with having a good time that he didn't notice the people of the town kneel down and thank God for saving them from that terrible army.

The other clouds continued to keep away from Jerwillikers. He was so hot-headed and so unpredictable! You never knew when he was going to explode into lightning. So Jerwillikers spent most of his time away from the other clouds by himself.

Some time later, he was floating over a mountain by himself and saw more strange goings-on down below. A bunch of people set up some stones. They killed a cow and put the cow's dead body on the stones. Then they started dancing around and crying out and cutting themselves with stones. Jerwillikers was so curious at what was going on that once again he forgot to jump. How silly they looked!

After a while the people got tired of dancing around. They lay around on the ground, panting. Then another man stood up. He set up his own pile of stones. He also killed a cow, cut it up and arranged the pieces on the stones. Then he dug a kind of ditch around the stones, and told the people to dump water on the stones -- once, twice, three times. The water ran into the ditch and filled it up. Jerwillikers was fascinated.

Finally the man looked up to the sky and said some words. Jerwillikers couldn't hear exactly what he said, but when he saw the man looking at him, he suddenly remembered how quiet he had been for so long. He exploded with all the pent-up jumpies he had stored up for the past couple of hours. Jerwillikers didn't even notice that his lightning struck the pile of stones and completely burned it up, together with the pieces of cow and the water.

Jerwillikers jumped so hard he jumped clear across the ocean. It took him some time to get back to land. When he did, he saw on a mountain the same man who had put up the stones and poured water over them. It seemed that the man was looking for him. He got so excited that he got the jumpies again. This time, instead of thunder and lightning he swelled up, turned black, and let go with rain -- sheets and rivers and oceans of rain. It seemed then that that man caught the jumpies from Jerwillikers. The man took off down the road so fast that he even outran the horses and chariots of the other people.

After all this activity, you can imagine that Jerwillikers was quite tired. He wanted to relax a little time and enjoy some time with friends. But he didn't have any friends. Jerwillikers felt very lonely. He began to feel very sorry for himself, and started to cry. "Nobody likes me, and I'm no good to anybody", he said, sniffing. "All I can do is jump around and make myself a nuisance. It would be better if I just vanished into smoke. Then I wouldn't bother anyone any more."

Suddenly Jerwillikers became aware that there was another cloud with him. But there was something very unusual and special about this other cloud. It glowed with some kind of inner light.

"Who -- who are you?", Jerwillikers asked, his voice shaky from crying and also a little from fear.

"I am the cloud of the Presence of the Lord", the cloud replied. "What are you doing here, Jerwillikers?"

"I'm a nuisance to everybody. The only thing I'm good at is jumping around and irritating the other clouds. I think that the Lord made a mistake when He formed me. It would have been better if I'd never been made in the first place."

"But Jerwillikers", said the cloud, "you are a great hero. People will remember and talk about your great deeds for ages and ages to come."

"But ... but ... I haven't done anything", Jerwillikers stammered.

"Oh yes, you have", said the cloud. "Do you remember when you dumped hailstones on that nasty army after the man raised his spear?"

"Yeah. That was FUN", said Jerwillikers.

"That man was Joshua, commander of the armies of Israel. With your hailstones, you saved that town from the enemies of the Lord. You did more to defeat them than Joshua's whole army."

"Oh", said Jerwillikers. He felt a little strange – something like you might feel if you took a bite of broccoli and it tasted like chocolate.

"And do you remember that man on the mountain, who set up the stones and arranged the sacrifice? That was Elijah, prophet of the Lord. When you set fire to his sacrifice, all the people of Israel could see that Elijah's God was the true God."

"I didn't know", said Jerwillikers in a whisper.

"You didn't, but the Lord did", said the bright cloud. "All this time, you have been fighting the Lord's battles for Him. He has been using you as one of His mighty war-clouds. Until now, you didn't know what you were doing – but now He wants you to know Him and hear His voice, so that you can obey Him and share in His joy."

"I would like that very much", said Jerwillikers. He bowed his head, and the bright cloud breathed a gentle puff of wind at Jerwillikers. Jerwillikers felt a tingling, glowing warmth come and settle deep inside his center. He knew that this was the spirit of the Lord, and from now on he would be able to hear the Lord's voice.

After that, Jerwillikers fought many battles for the Lord, and served Him well. When King Jehoshapat sent his singers out in front of his army, singing, "Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures for ever", it was Jerwillikers who confused the enemy with his darkness and wind, so the enemy soldiers began fighting each other. There's even a song in the Bible about Jerwillikers:

  The Lord made darkness his secret place,
    round about Him were dark waters
    and thick clouds of the skies.
    His thick clouds passed before His brightness,
    raining hailstones and coals of fire.
    The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
    and the Highest sounded His voice,
    with hailstones and coals of fire.
    He sent out his arrows, and scattered His enemies,
    He shot out lightning, and destroyed them.

Now isn't that kind of neat?