As we went to bed we could hear the wind picking up outside. It's whipping round the garden rocking chairs and rattling fence panels, and it's gaining speed. The forecast predicts the dark hours of the night to experience winds close to hurricane force levels. I wonder what we'll find when we wake up in the morning.
"...and Yahweh drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." Exodus 14:21
All night the wind lashed around them. They were trapped, clutching their cloaks with a pillar of wind behind them keeping the Egyptian army at bay, and hurricane force winds in front of them driving back the sea. Both the enemy of the Egyptians and the chaotic, impenetrable force of the waters was being set upon by the ruakh (wind/Spirit) sent by God.
Then, as morning broke and they strained their eyes to the first hues of dawn excited chattering broke out among them, growing into an the noise of millions of men, women and children disbelieving for joy; where there had been an ocean, there now stretched a street.
In 1579 the small towns of Seaford and Meeching were settled along the flood plains of the river Ouse until one night, a storm broke; a storm so strong the river was blocked and its mouth diverted. Eventually as locals grew used to the new path of the river and settled their lives around it, the name of Meeching died out and was replaced by one that better suited the reality they'd woken up to find after the storm: New Haven. Now a town of several thousands.
Waking after a storm we hurry to the windows and look out over the streets and gardens, has anyone lost any fence panels or roof tiles, are any trees over, I hope everyone's ok...
The wind brings change. We know it does, we've seen footage on our televisions of the damage and havoc it creates. Damage and havoc, but also new realities and lands; new havens.
"The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Genesis 1:2
A storm is coming. The breath of God is steadying himself for what's to come. He comes, in partnership with the rationale of the Son and the commands of the Father to drive back, and raise up and tear down, and form: land and birds and trees and seas. He comes to breathe into inanimate organisms and, ultimately, to animate a human pair.
And then, sometime later:
"Jesus ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait... for you will be baptised with the Spirit not many days from now." Acts 1:5
A storm is coming.
A yellow warning has been put out that nobody is to leave (unless essential!). We should know by now what happens when the Father's storm comes, old things are left behind and new realities are created. Out of the darkness planets are brought to life, sentient beings are raised up and highways are made on ocean floors. Chaos, the chaos of the sea, and the chaos in our lives gets driven back.
We wake up wondering what we'll find.
"Suddenly there came from heaven a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting." Acts 2:2
Closing the windows won't help since this storm is inside the house! It whips around the room as people gasp and shriek as "divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them."
Fire. And wind! Wind, an accelerant to fire, fire - an unapproachable, untouchable thing, a threat to life. What on earth is going on?
"And they were filled with the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:4
The wind is now inside them, the storm cannot be held back. It comes rushing onward and now inward as their lungs fill with the stuff, energising and animating new life within "and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." the fire also is inside. The licking, flickering, dancing flames of the Spirit, the wind and storm of God is not only 'out there' but 'in here' and now coming forth from their mouths. And then, as one man stands and addresses the onlookers the storm animates them as well, new life, new creation and energies bring with it new birth as thousands are reborn and a new world is begun.
We wake up after a dark night and wonder what the winds will have done.
The Spirit is making all things new. The wind is howling for you:
"Open your mouth wide and I will fit." Psalm 81:10
Holy breath of God, breathe on me today.
Amen