Wind, Breath, Spirit

Teaching the boys about grounding on the first warm day of the year :)

The other day I had about 30 minutes before I needed to pick my boys up from school so I went to the nearby YMCA's outdoor walking track to get some steps in. 

The day was glorious- sunny and 65 degrees. 

I walked a loop around the track and was just about back to my car when I had the sudden urge to lay down and sprawl out on the grass.

I'm not one to hold back on my crunchy, nature-loving side, but I also didn't want to look like a weirdy to any passerby. So I found a nook between two small trees where I plopped down, hoping to be at least a little inconspicuous. 

And there I did it- I laid on the YMCA's grass taking in slow breaths and resting on the ground and earth that is the Lord's creation. Eventually I sat up to feel the wind rushing past my body. 

I love the wind. It feels like a kiss from heaven. A physical sense of something bigger that we're a part of. 

And the Spirit whispered to my soul, "breath."

My natural instinct was to take another deep, cleansing breath into my lungs, and as I did another gust of wind whipped around me. 

It was as if the wind was the breath of God and I was breathing it in then and there. 

I asked myself, "Is the wind the breath of God?"

Now, I can't help myself but to dig in deep when I catch hold of a question like this. 

No, the wind might not literally be the breath of God, but how much of it figuratively is like His breath? Or how much does He want it to remind us that He's breathing all around us and we are breathing Him in? Or maybe, actually, the wind could literally be the Breath of God. I can't say for sure, but I love to speculate and wonder.

And my wonderings brought me to a word search on ruach, the Hebrew word for "wind, breath, spirit." 

Whoa. One word means all three. 

The wind, God's breath, His spirit. 

I love the visual of imagining the wind as God's spirit-presence entering my lungs. In and out. In and out. So much so that the wind of His presence becomes my own breath. And this thing that once seemed distant and separate is now fully united with me and functions with and in my very body. 

What a sweet reminder, whenever we feel the wind, to stop and rest in the fact that we have the immense privilege of experiencing and uniting with the presence of God- living and moving among us, around us and within us at all times. 

What a gift. 

Two songs that come to mind:

Apparently Brian and Katie Torwalt appreciate the wind too... I knew I liked them. 

Also wondering if I should read this book.