Whatever might have been in my mind to write about today was blown away with the roaring wind.
What is your experience of a windy day like today? Does it worry you? Energize you? Do you hunker down until it is past? Venture out to be buffeted about? Are you ambivalent about it?
I doubt the last is true. A strong wind like we are having this morning tends to evoke strong opinions.
As for me, I find it energizing. I don’t necessarily want to be blown about, but I love hearing the bending of tree branches, sensing the push of pressure against windows, and watching the raw power of it move things about.
There is something about the invisible power of the wind that has long reminded me of the invisible power of God, made known only by its effects and that which is caught up in its currents.
In the language of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), the same word (“ruach”) is used to express “wind” as is used to express “spirit” (or “ghost” if you read from older translations like the KJV). It is usually pretty clear which meaning is intended where (“spirit” or “wind”), but this inspires a kind of reminder on windy days: God’s Spirit is moving among us in powerful ways. Sometimes that looks pretty chaotic from our perspective; sometimes it seems hardly to move at all. But like the air itself, the Spirit is always with us: the very breath of God (“breath” is another translation of “ruach”), enabling us to be living beings in the image and likeness of God.
May that Wind keep blowing in your life and mine.
Remember, we’re all in this together.
Pastor Michael