The wind blows

The wind blows for thousands of years, can you feel its breeze, hear its singing and see the drift of leaves as they are gently shuffled along? The wind blows for thousands of years also in the Bible - humanity's book of its story with the one Spirit. In Hebrew (the original language of the Old Testament) and in Greek (the original language of New Testament) the words for wind are the same as the words for breath and Spirit: pneuma and spiritus. The same fundamental concept. The wind blows, the Spirit moves, breath is life and speech, all comprised originally in one word. Stunning. So much movement, energy, stir, change, life-changing commotion, divine motion of good. From the first book to the last the wind moves and blows and pushes and changes - as "the spirit of God", as "a still small voice", as spiritual intuition to heal and uplift, as a great movement towards peace and unity. Often an impersonal voice, like whispering wind, conveying an angelic message. Wind, breath, Spirit  - all linked, manifesting the change Spirit brings to the human experience. We might not see the Cause, but we will its effect. "Everything in the human condition wants continuity, God wants change," writes author and philosopher Ricarda Huch. And it seems that she knows something about the Biblical insights into the nature of Spirit - light-weight, moving, active - and a little mysterious to our wondering thought. Where does the wind come from - where does it start? And how is it that Spirit is the real substance - and not the most volatile and fleeting thing? Can you consider to be spiritual, after all? A child of the wind?

One of my favorite stories ever is the encounter of Nicodemus and Jesus in John's masterpiece gospel. There is something deeply humane and spiritually inspiring here. Nicodemus senses that Jesus is "the real thing" - but he is reluctant to approach Jesus in broad daylight. Jesus tells him that God and man are spiritual, with an analogy. With the help of the wind. John relates this encounter like a faithful journalist, copying word by word:

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”" (from John 3)

Like Nicodemus we are invited to change perspective. To consider leaving the fixedness of material living behind and acquaint ourselves with the Spirit, to getting to know Spirit and its moves as the one real energy and activity ever. We might come to see that it is the wind which lasts, and its movements of change that remain. That Spirit is more reliable and eternal than everything material thinking ever aspired to be. And that Spirit could never enter matter by cheer magnitude, substance, and unity. The worlds of the wind and the world of matter (or the flesh, in Jesus' term)  - they don't cooperate. We go with the wind.

Mary Baker Eddy gives in her definition of Biblical terms in the glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures this spiritual interpretation: "Wind. That which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God's spiritual government, encompassing all things." (p. 597)

The wind blows - don't resist it.