wind

We are living on a hilltop this summer.  When a breeze blows at the bottom of the hill, we feel it up top here as a gust.  Once in a while, it even sounds like a howling wind.  

So I was captured today by the phrase, "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting."(Acts 2:2)  I know that sound.  

My brother who lives in the Arctic said that last night a great windstorm blew with such force that when one of his neighbours stepped outside, their door blew clear off its hinges.  A mighty wind, no doubt, on the eve of Pentecost.  What did they do in the middle of the night, their door off it's hinges while they wind still howled?  Were they ready for it with an extra set of hinges?  Was their whole house filled with the gust of the violent wind? 

The wind here usually picks up in the afternoon.  In the mornings, we can see by the glassy smooth lake that the wind is hardly moving.   This is not unlike the way it is elsewhere.  Unless there's a cold front or a storm afoot, the morning is typically quiet.  But this wind, the Pentecost one, was a morning gale...  Perhaps that provided the backdrop for the bewilderment expressed at the symphony of languages that erupted, like the bass roll for a magnificent orchestral crescendo.  

I  am learning to love the wind.  The way it clears the air.  The freshness of it and even the sound.  I love the way the new aspen leaves twirl and shift in the wind and the way the birds expertly ride the drafts.  

The wind is teaching me to yearn for the anointing power of the Spirit in our lives... to yearn for the distinctive sound of the movement of the Spirit in our family and among our friends, on our street and in our church.  I wait for it in the places we live... our house, yes, our souls, and all the common places where we gather.  

Oh, Spirit of Christ, teach us the meaning of the wind.  Open our ears so that we will hear and understand.  Loosen our lips that our tongues will echo those ancient ones, delighting our neighbours' ears with familiar sounds and surprising sceptics with soulful speech they already love.  Unhinge our doors that the houses of our souls may be filled with the sound of your presence.  

Blow, wind!  

Come, Holy Spirit!