The Coming Wind

There have been those afternoons when I have heard the rushing wind crossing the line of trees down in the branch as it prepared to race across the hayfield to the place where I was standing.  Actually, the sound was the sound of the tree tops suddenly coming to life with this surprising and unexpected breath from the distant horizon.  No one knew the wind was coming.  Not the trees.  And though I welcomed it on those hot and still afternoons, I was as surprised as the waving trees.

 

When Jesus talked about the Spirit to Nicodemus, He used a word which can be translated "wind" or "spirit."  And when the gospel writer Luke spoke of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the second chapter of Acts, he used the image of rushing wind.  There are other windy moments in the Biblical story and they often seem to usher in the arrival of the holy.    On these days when the wind has kept everything moving in its path, it has been easy for the mind to wander to thinking about the Holy Spirit. 

 

The Holy Spirit is ever present with us.  The Word speaks of the Holy Spirit as One who dwells and abides within us.  And even though we know this to be true from years of following after Jesus, we still find ourselves surprised sometimes how He can move upon us in overwhelming and powerful ways.  When the Holy Spirit unleashes Himself fully in our lives, every part of our inner being is touched and moved.  Nothing about our life is as it was before this wind of God is felt hard against our soul.  When it happens it is not for our pleasure, but for some purpose of God.  When the Holy Spirit grabs our attention in a powerful way, we should not run to tell others, but we should run to the place where we pray and seek out the answer to the question, "Why?"