The Rustling of the Leaves

I sat on the steps on my front porch filing my nails when I heard the wind. It was unusually loud and alluring, calling me to perk up my ears and lift up my eyes. The trees in my neighborhood stand quite tall. Pines and Oak trees, six stories high, huddled together in backyards, now dancing vividly in the wind. Scary, really; One can’t help but wonder how they can sway with such flexibility without breaking into someone’s bedroom. 

And what a dance it was! From my vantage point these majestic creatures seemed to roll their tallest branches in slow motion while their trunks followed the rhythm of the wind in a back and forth freedom that provoked me to want to feel the wind moving through me as well. I looked around and noticed my own Dogwood tree and other shorter or younger trees and bushes in my own backyard, and while they were also happily yielding to the air, being closer to the ground and more shielded by buildings, they did not dance as ferociously as their neighbors. Funny how the same wind affects all of us in different ways, depending on where we are or how high we reach. 

You know well enough how the wind blows this way or that. You hear it rustling through the trees but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with anyone born from above by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.

John 3:8

Nature is our teacher. If the Spirit behaves like the wind, how can we be more intimate participants of the outpouring of God? How do we dance in response to the force, cooperating with it in an ease of flexibility and strength rather than resistance? 

Practice

Read and meditate on 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. Don’t rush through it. Read the passage slowly, read it out loud, read it several times. Come back to it during the week mulling it over, not for academic reasons but to hear the voice of God.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”

Some questions to ask yourself. Choose only one or two to dwell on. You can have a conversation with God about this either verbally or through journaling. You could also choose to discuss these with others in your circle of trust: