It is not clear how literally we are to understand our being caught up … in the clouds (1 Thes. 4:17).  We know from Jesus himself that his coming will be personal, visible and glorious, but we also know from him that it will not be local (‘There he is!’ ‘Here he is!’) but universal (‘like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other’; Lk. 17:23-24).  Presumably, therefore, our going to meet him will also transcend space. As for the clouds, they are to every Bible reader a familiar and easily recognized symbol of the immediate presence of God — at the Exodus, on Mount Sinai, filling the tabernacle, during the wilderness wanderings, at the transfiguration of Jesus, at his ascension, and at his glorious appearing.

—Dr. John R.W. Stott, The Message of Thessalonians, 104