The Wind

The wind was powerfully present today.  At the end of the day with some grilling to do, I found myself out there sitting in the midst of it.  Listening.  Watching.  Feeling.  The wind was all around and everywhere.  It howled softly and then loudly.  It ran across the top of the hay field grass like some invisible power set loose to go from wherever to there.  The tops of the old pecan trees were moving first one way and then another.  From whence it came and where it was going I do not know, but it was certainly here in the present moment of the day that was slipping toward the sunset.     

Such moments invariably bring to mind what Jesus had to say to Nicodemus.  As He talked about the Spirit and birth in the Spirit He said, "The wind blows where it chooses,and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know not where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8).  Who among us can put the Holy Spirit in some understandable and manageable box?  It is as impossible as harnessing the wind which blew wildly all around me in that moment of sitting in the midst of it.  Could it be true that the Holy Spirit is indeed wild beyond our imagination and out there having an impact on the world which is around us an in us?    

We catch evidences of the wind.  The trees stir and the grass waves all at the beckoning of the wind, but the wind we never see.  So, it is with this wild powerful Holy Spirit.  Though invisible to the eyes of birth, evidences of His presence and His work are all around us.  When we begin to see, it is time to sit down, allow that holy power to wash over us, and rejoice that once again we have been made alive to the reality of God's presence in our life.