Wednesday, November 27, 2002

So, what’s up with all this wind? Yesterday as I got off the bus and began the walk to campus, I had to squint my eyes to keep out the flying dirt. Even so, after arriving at my office I cleaned bits of mud from each eye. Everywhere you look there are piles of dust and leaves. Truckers are keeping off the highways for fear of ending up on their sides. Tree limbs are ripped off their trunks. All this wind makes me wonder what all Jesus meant in John 3:7-9, where he says that those born of the Spirit are like the wind. Just like we don’t really know where all this wind comes from and where it goes when it leaves, so we don’t really know how God works in salvation—we don’t really know when regeneration takes place. All we can see are the effects—the fruit of the Spirit, shall we say…

Back in Ecclesiastes (11:5), the Preacher says the activity of God is like the path of the wind. So basically it’s like this: despite all I’m learning at Talbot, neither my learned professors nor I will ever fully understand God. Makes it even more amazing that we can know anything at all. Isaiah says that the earth is, in fact full of his glory (6:2-4). There is enough information to condemn those who reject God (Romans 1:18-20); there is also enough information for God’s people to realize their own weakness fall at God’s feet seeking mercy, and respond in eager faith to follow (Isaiah 6:1-8). Here’s the questions I need to ask myself: Do I see? Do I realize my own weakness—really realize it? Do I fall at God’s feet? Do I eagerly respond in faith? Or are my own things clouding my vision?

Back to the wind. True we can’t know exactly where the wind comes from or where it goes. The path of the wind—the path of God—is a mystery. But we have the clues. We have the piles of leaves and dust. We see the branches sway. We see the clouds carried. We see the satellite pictures on the evening news. Let the one with eyes, see what the Spirit is doing.