Did you feel the change of the wind? No, it is not that Mary Poppins is arriving on an umbrella. It is not even the wind that tells of a change of weather. Some “get wind of” gossip floating about from one person to another. We politely talk about passing wind. It is none of these. Yesterday was Pentecost. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:1,2)” The Holy Spirit was present.
In Genesis, the wind hovered over the void and creation began. God formed people and blew life into them. “God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided” in the flood. Wind indicates the presence of God and of change.
My heart is touched by several aspects of the Pentecost story. God’s breath, God’s wind, made God’s communication became understandable in each person’s language. There is no language barrier between me and God. I do not have to learn a language or qualify to earn the right to communicate with the God of the universe. I don’t have to wait in line to speak to God or go to a professional religious leader but can talk with him any time and any place. Secondly there is a change of focus. The wind brought communication, not because a miracle was needed for a healing as when people came to Jesus with their sick, but now God was speaking to people in their own language about their lives. The wind brings relationship with God. Wind touches me and my friends all at the same time. I do not have to worry if Jesus is busy healing someone else like the woman with the flow of blood who secretly touched Jesus as he went to the home of Jairus whose daughter was sick. The wind of Pentecost blew in change.
Pentecost brought a major change in the understanding of God and our ability to communicate with him and be empowered by him. The sacrificial system changed. I no longer bring a burnt offering but a broken and contrite heart. Before we jump into the Pentecost season, let us spend a couple days thanking God for changes that blew into our lives on Pentecost. No language barrier, no distance barrier, no subject barrier, and no need to buy a goat. We can stand in the wind today and say “thank you” to God for his breath working in our lives and all over our world. And the people of God said, “Amen!”
On the Way to Wonder 