Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I run away from where You are? If I go up to heaven, you are there! If I made my bed in the place of the dead, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning or live in the furthest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will hold me. Psalm 139:7-10
I like to compare the seemingly natural occurrences of nature to human spirituality, because God is mystically intertwined in both.
Take the wind for instance. Even though we can feel it, we can’t see it; we can only see the objects that it moves.
Sitting on the patio a few days ago, a sense of replenishment and peace came over me as the gentle breeze brushed against my face.
This was quite a contrast from a few nights prior when a storm quickly approached, bringing with it potentially damaging winds, which forced me to take shelter.
But even though I watched the storm from a place of safety, I couldn’t stop it. I could only create barriers for myself inside the confines of my home. Because the impact of its force could be felt until its energy had passed and was eventually used up.
And like the wind, the Holy Spirit can’t be seen. But it most certainly can be felt within, prompting the human spirit to move into action. Who can stop it? We can fear it. We can put up barriers of blame and try to resist it. Or, like a constant breeze, we can embrace it and allow God’s power to push us in the direction He chooses. Either way, the Holy Spirit will pursue us until the soul’s energy leaves the body upon death.
There have been many times in my life where it felt like I was chasing the wind, times when I felt totally depleted, times when life looked dark and bleak, times when I tried to fight the Holy Spirit’s direction for my life, only to be touched by the gentle breeze of His presence, assuring me that no matter how much I tried to run, or how often I failed, I couldn’t stop Him from pursuing me. Because like the wind swirling across the wheat field, moving the grain in many directions—Christ left us His Spirit—our moral compass, to guide us through life’s winds of change, which, ultimately, lead us back to Him.
With the busyness of summer winding down, autumn’s beauty will soon burst into an array of vibrant colors, only to appear dull and empty once Mother Nature drops her leaves.
In life, we transition through these times of beauty and emptiness as well. We embrace one while dreading the other. But the psalmist reminds us in (139: 7-10) that beauty and emptiness are only temporary stages in life, and that the one unchanging factor, as we pass through them, is the pursuance of God’s hand upon us.
