There are not many days where 4am rolls around and my eyes are open. Today, however, is different. I fell asleep at 11pm and was awakened just under 5 hours later. My instinct was to blame it on the winds – my sinuses were acting up, I feel so dry and thirsty almost constantly. And when the attempts to return to sleep failed, I went outside, hoping to feel some sort of relief, or maybe just a slightly cooler temperature.
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30 Minutes later, I sit here, with millions of thoughts rushing through my head, all because of 30 minutes outside with the wind. The first thing I did was look up. I am not sure why I always forget this, but when we have these kinds of winds, they have the unbelievable ability to clear up the atmosphere so when I get to see the moon and the stars, I see them the way that they were meant to be seen – so brightly shining that the idea that night was ‘dark’ almost seemed untrue. It is nights like tonight that help me remember how huge this place is – and how my tiny brain cannot even begin to fathom just a portion of that. The lines from a song that we had sung in church just hours previous kept replaying in my head:
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“How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure! That he would give his only son, to make a wretch his treasure.”
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And with my sleepy voice, I could not help but to sing them aloud. As the words came out of my mouth I realized just how quiet it was. No car on the street, no dogs barking or tires screeching – it was the sounds that are created by the winds blowing through the trees, and my small voice. How vast is God’s love for us!
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There is a grouping of Birch trees that stand behind a bench on my front lawn - it is one of my favorite places to sit. My eyes were fixed on them for a time, mostly because of the way the wind makes them sound. I wondered what it would be like to remember what wind felt like when you first encountered it. Perhaps if I weren’t an infant, my process of thought would have been different. Wind seems to be a frightening thing. Where does it come from? We can only see it by how it affects and changes what it encounters. I decided that I want to be a Birch tree. Strange? All I could think about was how people say that because they see no God, they believe no God. Whose fault is this? I want my branches to be moved, and I want to make a sound. Trees, without wind are seemingly inanimate objects. When the Winds are at work, we notice two things: 1. The tree has a noise to make - it comes alive. 2. Because the tree moves and makes noise, there can be no question that the wind exists, and that it in fact was the sole reason that the tree came alive.
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John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” I can feel the wind. This love for one another is only one way that we are affected and made alive in Christ. It is how people will believe that the Wind exists, and is real – they will see our branches moving and hopefully they too become recipients of the effects of something so life altering that we must bow down. Can we stop the wind? No. We are powerless against the wind. Can we hide from the wind? Yes. We can seek shelter in places for a time, recognizing of course that wind can even be so strong as to take down those places where we thought we could escape it. I choose option three: I want to be a deeply rooted tree who is the proof that the wind exists, and can and will create a beautiful sound when we recognize that we are powerless and without control, and submit ourselves to the effects of the Wind. I will submit myself to the workings of the Father, the Son an the Holy Spirit that my life would point to the existence of a creator – the one who placed those beaming stars in our vast sky.
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Jesus tells Nicodemus, a Pharisee, in John chapter 3 “You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
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Nicodemus was a religious leader in the days when Christ walked the earth. He was amongst those whose sole goal was to eliminate Jesus – and yet he posed questions of justice – he recognized that Christ must be of God, because of the miracles he was performing. In the process and change that Nicodemus goes through, we see a submission to the workings of the Holy Spirit. Jn. 3:1-21,7:50-52, 19:39,40.
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May we all be affected, changed and moved by the Holy Spirit – just like the wind moves, changes, and affects the trees.
The Psalmist of Psalm 104 praises God for His creation. Verse three says “… He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.”
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