'Angel Cloud' over Palm Beaches continues to elicit awe, excitement and questions

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - We live in a skeptical age, or so it is said. Just when you start believing it, a cloud in the sky turns heads and earns attention across the social media world.

I've been getting replies for 24 hours now to the cloud photo a viewer sent in to NewsChannel 5 Wednesday from Royal Palm Beach.

It is a beautiful early evening picture and many viewers who saw it posted on the web--we are talking thousands of them---said it resembled an angel.  We got various angles of the same cloud photo from different people by the way, appearing to answer worries that the photo was doctored.

On the day a global audience watched a humble cardinal become Pope Francis, much of our social media buzz revolved around the photo you see.  Many cast it with religious overtones, others gazed on it as a simple, beautiful piece of natural handiwork.

One ordained Anglican minister, Dr. Tom Duncan, reminded me that even in this modern age, especially now perhaps, people are looking for powerful symbols of comfort and affirmation.

Beauty and meaning, as always, remain in the eye and heart of the beholder.