The ancient Wind blew over the darkened chaos and brought new order, life, land and sea. Where there was no place for life, the Wind made one! That’s the earliest Wind, from Genesis 1, the first verses in the Bible. Over and over the Wind shows up in the ancient stories – a power for freedom, renewal, recovery – for life!

When God made humans, He “breathed the breath of life” into the first one. In the old language “wind,” “breath,” and “spirit” were the same word. The Wind carries life!

Maybe you’ve heard the story of the Great Flood (Genesis 6 – 9). God had given us a beautiful world with everything we needed for worthwhile life – but we lost God, lost our way with each other and with the world. We destroyed it so badly beyond hope that God had to “uncreate” it and start all over. When the time had come for a new Creation, the Wind once again blew on the waters, bringing the world back to life and back to balance!

Much later a tribe of ignorant, brutalized slaves were led into new freedom! On their long march out of that old life of hopeless misery they came up against an impassable sea. Their enemies came bearing down on them, and doom was certain! But the Wind blew across the sea, and made a dry road for them – they travelled to safety, leaving the past behind forever. (Exodus 15)

The Wind was much more than an atmospheric disturbance: it became an image of life and hope, freedom and new abundance! New creation!

A devastated people, hopelessly lost, swallowed up in a huge, powerful nation with no way out. The mystic’s vision was a vast valley full of dead bones, the detritus of a defeat beyond annihilation. But God’s words put the bodies back together, the Wind breathed new life into them, and suddenly a vast army stood ready for battle. The people heard of the vision of the Wind, and their hearts came alive with new hope. (Ezekiel 37) They persevered! Their resilient life is why we’re reading about them 2500 years later!

And once again, on a beautiful summer day long ago something wonderful happened: the Wind came roaring into the world of humans, breathing new life directly into people – all kinds of us! (Acts 2) The Wind opened a way into new freedom, new hope, a whole new way to live here!

These stories and more all speak of God’s unseen power, the Wind: bringing new order, breaking through impassable obstacles, bringing new life, new meaning, a new world.

What would your life be like if you could lean into the Wind?