Spirit/Wind

A favorite image of the Spirit for me comes towards the end of the movie How To Make An American Quilt. Some folks would call it a chick flick, but not so. It is a wonderful story of how love has entered and changed the lives of several women who are part of a quilting circle. They share their stories with Finn, granddaughter and great-niece of two of the women. Finn is finishing writing her dissertation—after having abandoned a few along the way. The finished document is on the desk when a wind storm begins, blowing the pages through the window and about the town. The wind disturbs the well-laid plans and static relationships of the women. Through its power and disruption it brings about reconciliation and recommitment for several of the women.

While all metaphors and analogies fall short of the reality, I like this image of the Spirit/Wind because it reminds me that my well-laid plans are often meant for the purpose of keeping relationships and life static. When I have everything neatly arranged in a satisfactory fashion, suddenly God’s Spirit blows in through the window disrupting my neat order and plans. I am faced with God’s creating power. I am invited to enter into that whirlwind of power to allow God to stir up grace within me and about me.

Sometimes I welcome that Spirit/Wind, but sometimes, I confess, I resist it. And that is when its power is most needed to stir me from complacency or resignation, to move me towards the mystery of a future lived fully in God’s grace.

I invite you to see where God’s Spirit/Wind blows through the windows of your life to draw you out of whatever holds you in complacency or resignation, and move you into the fullness of God’s grace.

John 3:8: The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”