March brings to mind wind; anything that has to do with wind is connected with March. I guess due to the temperature changes we have a considerable amount of wind during this month. As children in grade school we would do art projects that featured kites. Where I lived in western North Carolina, there would be an annual kite flying day in mid-March. Donations from generous community members purchased small kites for everyone who attended and a hill at the regional nature preserve offered a great up lift for flyers.
The sky would be full of kites of all shapes and sizes. Enthusiasts would bring their own specialized kites, dragons and airplanes, huge pinwheels, cartoon characters, stunt, box and all manners of shapes and sized kites filled the air.
I remember as a young fellow I think I was in third grade in central Ohio, buying a pink kite with a picture of the Incredible Hulk on it for 50 cents and three big balls of string. My mom and I found an old bed sheet and ripped it into strips to make a huge tail for it. I will never forget my amazement as it seemingly rose magically into the air. I was laughing as our first roll was about to run out and we tied another roll of string on, we could barely see our kite as we tied on the third roll of string but I remember feeling so great because it seemed we were flying too. I felt a connection to the wind and the air. I could close my eyes and imagine seeing the world from the view of my kite to the ground.
Wind is an incredible thing, one of creation’s amazing components. Wind is created by the differences in air and ground temperatures. It is interesting how much our weather is controlled by the wind and how much we are controlled by the weather. Since moving to Monticello, I have been much more aware of the wind, it seems we never have a day without it. Bitter cold and bone chilling the winter and cool and comforting in the summer heat.
Whenever I feel the breeze on my face I think of Ruach one of the Hebrew names for the essence of God. The Ruach or Holy wind, the holy spirit as we Christians would say, is the first image we have of God in the book of Genesis: Gen1-
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
The Ruach, holy wind or Holy Spirit that was there in the beginning of everything. It was the wind or breath of God that stirred the waters of creation.
Science tells us that we here on earth are a closed system. So, that breeze, that air, that breath is still here in our atmosphere. It is interesting to think that this wind may be stirring a creation in and of ourselves.
God is still actively creating in our world; creation did not end with those seven days back in Genesis. Creation continues just as the Ruach is still the air which we breath. The Holy Spirit is still moving us to bring about the new kingdom of compassion, caring and justice. I pray the Ruach stirs us to a more loving compassionate life and in turn as each of us find that place, we will make this world a more just compassionate world!
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Lance Smith is pastor at Zwingli United Church of Christ in Monticello.
