1-18-2021
“Wooo! Wooo!” the wind howled through our chimney and rattled the glass doors on the fireplace. It was blasting the house on one side, making the wood shift. Peeking between the curtains, I could see the blizzard outside. Tree branches were bouncing around like crazy, and I was thankful to have a nice warm home.
The tiny pieces of snow swirled around in a large spiral over my front yard reminding me of the paint strokes used in “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh. More of it blew by straight and fast making it difficult to see through the sheets of snow in the air.
There was hardly any snow actually on the ground. Small flakes gathered together in the air forming little clumps of blowing snow. The sky was full of different flake sizes that were pushed into the west side of all the trees. It’s strange how the wind forced the snow to stick onto the bark and ignore the pull of gravity.
Before they reach earth’s surface, each uniquely designed snowflake falls from the sky, floats around wherever the wind takes it, and then settles itself among others creating a magnificent scene of white. One snowflake simply dissolves by itself, but all together they make a masterpiece, and there’s a completely new landscape for our eyes to enjoy for only a season.
This blizzard is sending my thoughts to the Holy Spirit, perhaps because I remember studying biblical Greek and how the words ‘wind’ and ‘spirit’ are closely related. Either meaning can be translated from the Greek word πνεῦμα (pneuma) depending on context. For example, John 3:8 says, “The wind (πνεῦμα, pneuma) blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (Πνεύματος, pneumatos).”
That’s so true!
I can pray to the Lord for the Spirit to guide me and to help control my actions. He produces all of the fruit of the Spirit in me: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. These actions are not seen by the human eye, but we witness them through the actions of the person in whom the Holy Spirit is dwelling. He isn’t visible to us, yet His work is shown in us.
Similarly, He doesn’t tell us where He will move next, but He guides us through life as we are living it. We don’t worry about where He was or what He will do next, but we trust Him now. He leads us down the correct paths filling our minds with the discernment we long for while we try to become more like Christ.
I’m not sure how common it is, but finding these links between scripture, language, reality and general sense of awe is very intriguing. It’s an acknowledgment of God that’s a kind of worship for me. In this case, it causes me to pay more attention to the wind in my life. I can see God in the blowing about our lives with a beautifully controlled gust of wind that places us exactly where we need to be until we melt away.
Today, when the branches sway and the breeze brushes my skin, may I remember His sovereignty as He moves my spirit.
Acts 13:52 “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
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