Listen To The Wind!

John3:8 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. (1)

Modern day science does much to satisfy our intellectual inquiry about the wind – the whys and the wherefores.
-But who can unravel the mystery of the cool evening breeze that seems like the brush of an angel’s wing on our bodies after a scorching summer day?

-Who will speak of the unseen hand in the gentle breeze that tousles one’s hair when he is all alone in his boat on the bay, and the crimson sunset is all around him, and the seagulls are calling?

Who can explain the loving transport of sons, fathers and brothers into the inner sanctum of one’s soul when fierce gales known too well by those who go down to the sea in ships threaten to harm them? (2)

I have listened to the sound of the wind and tried to understand the mystery that lies beyond it. When a person speaks it is not the mere sound of the words that are of the most significant importance; it is what the words are meant to convey: the thought, the idea, or some truth which continues long after the sound of expression has long vanished.

William Wordsworth  gives a poignant expression of this truth as he relates his admiration of Nature:

“I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts: A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels all things,
All objects of  all thought, And rolls through all things”. (3)

Jesus urges Nicodemus to listen to the sound of the wind.
That is more than a verbal invitation to listen to the murmuring of the wind; Nicodemus (a scholar of The Jewish religious expression) knows that the Hebrew words for ‘wind’ and ‘Spirit’ derive from the same root. Therefore, Jesus is preparing Nicodemus for a deeper and more profound experience of The Spirit.

I have heard that wind!  It is entirely different from the wind that billows the sheets drying on a clothesline and sometimes uproots trees and flings the salt spray high into the air. This other wind gently touched my Spirit, and when I listened,  as I eventfully learned to do, the sound I heard was the sound of my name on the lips of God. This wind, the breath of God, is far more potent than the strongest gale that ever ripped its destructive path through forests or destroyed cities and towns. The Breath of God is the epitome of unconditional love.

The Breath Of God is even now whispering in each person’s life! It has power to transform your terror into calm, to cast your frightening storms and impregnable mountains into the sea of forgetfulness. (4) The breath of God at work in all creation results in the sparrow building its fragile nest on the altar of God for protection from the wind’s fierce fury. (5)  This wind is blowing for everyone, but everyone must hear it themselves!  I imagine Jesus’  conversation with Nicodemus went something like this: ‘I know that you have been seeking the power and glory of the transformed life. Nicodemus. But do not permit anything to distract you, like the empty noises of the wind. It is easy to become distracted by the sounds of this world that are no more than the vacant sound of the wind. I am with you, listen now to the sound of God whispering your name!

Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O God, Whose creative Spirit once hovered over the formless void to create this beautiful earth. Come closer to us now and create such beauty in us that the sound of our voices will blend in with all things that join in singing a Hallelujah chorus for the Glory of God and the hope of restoring beauty to Your whole creation once more. Amen
Editorial Notes

1. The Holy Bible. NIV. John 3:8 p.636
2.  The Holy Bible.NIV. see  Psalm:107: 23-31p.935
3. William Wordsworth. https://interestingliterature.com/2018/11/tintern-abbey-a-poem-by-william-wordsworth
4. The Holy Bible. NIV. See Psalm 46:1-3 p.870