Rain Lily 4/4/05

The Wind

April 5, 2005 Jn 3:7b-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "‘You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered and said to him,
"How can this happen?" Jesus answered and said to him, "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

"The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." The wind is like a breath an invisible essential element of life. When our breath is gone from our body, so is our Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us with a life of God that goes beyond our earthly existence.

The last several days I have been thinking about the death of Pope John Paul II. There are those who agree and disagree with his writings and his policies and personal leanings. The thing I remember is his holy presence and the sense of true faith and the love of God and others that eminated from him and was easily experienced in his presence. I was blessed to have been in his presence in Rome three different times in 2000 once on Pentecost and then two other days within a close time of Pentecost. There was not a doubt that this was a man who was truly a holy man with extraordinary God given gifts for languages and communication. Now the wind, the breath of Spirit is gone from his body.