Daily Devotion for October 13, 2006

The Wind and Breath of God

 

“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?” Philippians 2:1

 

As I understand it, our word “spirit” derives from the Latin word for breath, “spiritus,” which Biblically replaced the Hebrew “ruah,” (literally “wind”) and Greek “pneuma” (“breath”). To me, “Holy Spirit” is a translation of “Wind and Breath of God.”

 

Wind is a necessary, uncontrollable, unpredictable force. It bears down on everything in its path. It can be frightening and locally destructive. However, it is also a natural factor of life and plays a role in the survival and promulgation of species.

 

Breath is mini-wind and is, obviously, essential to life.

 

Recently I received a call from my sister to come home as my mother had fallen and was in serious condition in the hospital.  I immediately made plans to fly home that day.  While I was on the plane I was going through in my mind how things that I had scheduled were going to be covered while I was away.  I kept going back and forth, thinking and praying for my mom and thinking of work.  Finally I said to God, I can’t do this – my focus has to be on my mom and dad and sister, the rest Lord – well handle!

 

While in the hospital waiting for the prognosis from the doctor on my mother’s situation, I went down to the cafeteria to get something to eat.  Mixed emotions, tired, I just wanted to have some time of silence to think.  Good luck in a hospital cafeteria!  I tried not to listen to the conversations around me, but wasn’t very successful.  It’s then that I overheard a conversation at a table next to me.

 

It was a conversation between two women – both had children and they were talking about their sons.  One was talking about how her young son had taken her out to eat and paid for it himself.  The other mother said that her son told her he wanted to take her out to eat but she knew he did not have any money and she personally couldn’t afford it.  It became obvious that she was a single mother on a tight budget.  

 

Something tugged at me.  Maybe it was the situation that led me to be in the hospital cafeteria in the first place, waiting for the prognosis on my mother.  Maybe it was compassion for the single mother and her little boy and their situation.  Or maybe it was the Holy Spirit nudging me to do something.  When I went to leave I went over to the single mother and put a twenty and a five-dollar bill on the edge of her table. I said, “Here. Give this to your little boy, for him to take you out to eat tonight.”

 

She said she couldn’t take the money. I told her it wasn’t my money but God’s. I told her I thought God wanted her little boy to have it, to take her out to dinner that night.
 
I feel like the Holy Spirit blows through us now and then even if we’re not tuned in to it. Maybe it’s because we’re in our own vulnerable state at the time. Maybe the wind has blown us there. I don’t know. I’d like to think as we move through life we open ourselves up more and more for the breath of God to blow through us. How perfect it will be if when we die, all that really happens is that the last resistance of our selves blows away and the pure Holy Spirit blows gently through that place that once was us.

 

Prayer
Dear Lord, Please send your healing grace to my family as we need it now, and please let me respond positively whenever I feel your powerful presence in me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

 

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