Listen to the wind,
Wonder what it’s sayin'”
–Bob Nolan
“God hides his work beneath a series of imperceptible events, both in grace and nature, and thus he subjects us to the mysteries of faith.”
–Fenelon
I’ve heard the wind howl while on the mountaintop. I’ve heard it moan through the trees while relaxing in the meadow near a cool stream. I’ve been through the hurricane with the winds blowing continually and I’ve barricaded myself in the onslaught of the twisting tornado. I’ve felt the force of the wind in the blizzard as its icy breath tears through the body like a knife. I’ve camped in the forests when the force of the wind threatened to blow our camp off the mountain.
The wind can bring devastation or it can bring sweet relief on a hot day. Imagine sitting by a nice stream, flowing over small cataracts with the soft, cooling breeze. Here the wind is not raging, but soothing, bringing relief. In all of that, what is the wind saying? Is it whispering or is it howling? Does it bring relief, or does it bring angst? This is March–the month of the wind. Kites will fly, but there may also be storms.
My wife always tells me of the first time I took her to Colorado. We had one of those winds blow down through the canyons. She thought the house was going to blow down, and perhaps she thought that’s what life with me would be like–a rushing wind. Hmmm, you’ll have to ask her whether it has or not.
From where does the wind come? Where does it go? There are the continual high winds of the jet stream which blow in a general direction, but always changing. They bring changes in the weather, thus affecting nature and man. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is similar to the wind. He is mystical, and He knows the ways of the Father. “The wind blows where it likes, you can hear the sound of it, but you have no idea where it comes from and where it goes. Nor can you tell how a man is born by the wind of the Spirit.” (John 3:8, Phillips)
It is pertinent to realize that the wind is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit. We can hear it, we can see what it does, but we do not know its ways. The same is true of the Spirit. We hear Him speaking, often in different ways, we see the result of the Spirit’s work, but why does He does He do the things He does? Why does He allow this and not that? The Spirit works in mysterious ways. He forced Jesus into the wilderness; we balk at that, but He often does the same thing to us.
Listen to the “Wind”…