I live up in the Colorado Rockies.
Many of you have visited my area in the summer.
It's incredibly beautiful here, with majestic mountains, crystal clear lakes and streams, ponderosa pines, lodgepole pine, spruce. And of course, the plentiful wildlife.
It's still beautiful in the winter. Except that it's terribly windy.
If you live on the flat lands, don't try to complain to me about your wind.
Oh, you get wind, and it can be quite powerful down on the Front Range.
But we high mountain people (8000 feet in elevation) have wind ALL the time.
Today, it's blasting us at 100 miles per hour, with gusts in excess of 120 mph.
It rips at my house like a ravening wolf.
Don't try to take a walk when the wind blows like this. It will whip sand and grit into your eyes and sting any exposed flesh.
Funny thing about wind.
You can't see it.
It's not like the other earthly elements.
You can certainly see water and fire.
But wind: gentle summer breezes, light spring winds, drafts, zephyrs, puffs, gusts, blasts.
All invisible.
What you see, or hear, is the effect of the wind.
The wind sculpts trees, grinds rocks, shifts the topography, melts snows.
It accomplishes much.
God is like that.
When my faith is tested, I sometimes wish fervently that He would show Himself in some tangible form.
But I experience, instead, the effect of His movement through my soul.
Sometimes He is like the hurricane blasts that whip and roar from the heights.
Sometimes, He is a bracing chill of the current of air that parallels the river on its course through the canyon.
And then sometimes, He is the tropic caress that cools my skin when the high sun rages.
I cannot resist Him.
He will have His way with me no matter how I twist or bend or crouch or sway.
In whatever direction He decides to blow, He will travel from here to there.
Whether He blows big, or blows small, He will be felt.
And He will accomplish what He has set out to accomplish.
"Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless He is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 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."
(John 3: 5-8 NIV Bible)
Many of you have visited my area in the summer.
It's incredibly beautiful here, with majestic mountains, crystal clear lakes and streams, ponderosa pines, lodgepole pine, spruce. And of course, the plentiful wildlife.
It's still beautiful in the winter. Except that it's terribly windy.
If you live on the flat lands, don't try to complain to me about your wind.
Oh, you get wind, and it can be quite powerful down on the Front Range.
But we high mountain people (8000 feet in elevation) have wind ALL the time.
Today, it's blasting us at 100 miles per hour, with gusts in excess of 120 mph.
It rips at my house like a ravening wolf.
Don't try to take a walk when the wind blows like this. It will whip sand and grit into your eyes and sting any exposed flesh.
Funny thing about wind.
You can't see it.
It's not like the other earthly elements.
You can certainly see water and fire.
But wind: gentle summer breezes, light spring winds, drafts, zephyrs, puffs, gusts, blasts.
All invisible.
What you see, or hear, is the effect of the wind.
The wind sculpts trees, grinds rocks, shifts the topography, melts snows.
It accomplishes much.
God is like that.
When my faith is tested, I sometimes wish fervently that He would show Himself in some tangible form.
But I experience, instead, the effect of His movement through my soul.
Sometimes He is like the hurricane blasts that whip and roar from the heights.
Sometimes, He is a bracing chill of the current of air that parallels the river on its course through the canyon.
And then sometimes, He is the tropic caress that cools my skin when the high sun rages.
I cannot resist Him.
He will have His way with me no matter how I twist or bend or crouch or sway.
In whatever direction He decides to blow, He will travel from here to there.
Whether He blows big, or blows small, He will be felt.
And He will accomplish what He has set out to accomplish.
"Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless He is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 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."
(John 3: 5-8 NIV Bible)
I love this analogy, Dena. When you were talking about 120 mph winds, I thought immediately of the hurricanes that occasionally blast our area. Such raw power!
ReplyDeleteSusan, as we've traveled to National Parks and listened to ranger talks, I've always been impressed by what the wind can do. But that's nothing compared to the power of the Spirit!
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