Wherever It Pleases

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. –John 3:8

What was He thinking!?!? Has He gone mad!?!?

Do we have to go to our mother’s womb again!?!?  Nicodemus was startled, dumbfounded, confused.  Was he scratching his head?  Maybe the lateness of the night was catching up to his finite mind.  Jesus, of course, was explaining the seemingly unexplainable.
We feel the wind caress our face.  It can be measured, but you can’t catch it on your own hands.  As a gas, it occupies space, but it’s never defined on its own.  While it cools down our bodies, it also gives oxygen- albeit is poisonous.  It catches the odors around it and takes it to where it wants to be taken.

We can’t explain the wind.  As Nicodemus couldn’t understand the imagery.

A HOLY Spirit is flowing through us.  Not IMPURE, neither FAKE, nor HOKEY, it is a HOLY Spirit.  Those who are born again from a Spirit are also born to go where God wants them to go.  We can’t see God, yet we KNOW He is guiding us, for real.  Those born from the Counselor look to be perfected each day, renewed and revived.

And yet…We let the wind to stop blowing.  It ceases to respite for us, as we let things to stop breathing.  The wind is willing to do anything, if and only if we are willing to do everything too.  Doesn’t the Spirit look like that, also?  We grieve it, even if we don’t want to grieve it.  We let the Devil take a foothold out of our weakness…

But that’s what God does…He lets us breathe again…    

Wind and Flame

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' –Ezekiel 37:9, NIV

…But it wouldn’t last.

The Garden was too much for man to live in it.  They were naked, ashamed, hidden, and impure.  They couldn’t belong to such holy place.  Man was kicked out, out from the garden, deprived to touch the tree of life.  Angels guarded the place; they couldn’t risk damned creation to haughtily rise up to life.

Not yet, not yet…

God was still there, teaching a people He chose by no merit necessary.  Wind followed their steps, wind touched them.  The desert blew them away; the Promised Land flowed with milk and honey.  The people of the Promise were waiting for their vindication, but it seemed that God was too far to reach.  Nonsense –it was the beginning of a whole new day of sunshine.

Israel was dead-spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, dead.  They could barely worship God, they could barely live a peaceful life.  The pressures from their own horses barred them from a joy exceeding any other joy.  God was there, watching every move, every action, every thought.  Was He waiting for them to react?  Yep, but who would make the first move?

And there was Ezekiel lying with his own doubts of what God would do to the whole house of Israel.  Wind was the only thing that needed.

His wind created tendons.

His wind created flesh and skin.

His wind created a new contrite heart.

His wind emboldened a broken house.

His wind gave hope to the whole house of Israel.

His wind gave way to a new revival.

Isn’t he doing the same thing to this nation?  I believe it so.

The Dust

The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. –Genesis 2:7

I promised myself I wouldn’t do this, a lot, I mean.  But how can He make beautiful things out of the dust?  How can He make rain fall where it never falls?  Or snow where it never snows?

Sometimes, it’s hard to understand how in the world we ended up breathing.  Dust is dust, it dances with the wind; tell me, if you can catch it, you get a prize!  We get the soles of our feet caught up with it, we let our bodies fall dirty to it, yet He gave us breath of life with it…

He picked a big, round circle on a red patch of the earth for our face.   A little stick for our bodies.  A few stick for our hands and arms.  A big line for our feet.

THEN he decided to give us features.  Twigs for faces, holes for dimples and freckles, curves for our bodies, even rocks for espinitas!
He uses the colors of the flowers to paint our eyes.

He picks the finest grass blades for our finest features.

He picks a bit of water from the pond to erase those fissures that don’t look appeasing.

He lets the sun dry us in immaculate perfection.

But then…He lets fire burn us, well, only where we need to be burnt.  Makes it crispy for more flavor.

And then…he…blows life onto the sculpture.

A man appears, looking at his naked body.  He looks face to face to the One who created him.  He sees his hands, his arms, his chest, his torso, his legs, his pelvis, his…todo.  The Creator smiles because He did the right thing.

They walk together, hand in hand, marveling the beauty of the garden.

That’s how this life started, and that’s how it will end…sooner than we think will end…

Attempt #5...CINCO!

Attempt #5!

How I’m glad to return to my element!

Right now, I’m writing back in sunny Puerto Rico, my real home.  I’m in 12th Grade- Cuarto Año, Senior Year Yedaix (that’s our class name, please don’t laugh and/or scoff).  For now, I’m back in my old church, and I still can’t get used to many things. My tastes have definitely become Americanized, and I’m with my family again, and I missed the eternal heat of the tropics, eighteen degrees below the Equator.  I don’t know, maybe I missed Puerto Rico even more than I thought…

I thank my Lord for these most awkward two years.  Those months that I felt hushed and broken, misled and confused…this is the fruit of His labor.  I know my thoughts haven’t reached exponential heights, but my writing is a work in progress.  (These things you never see coming, even if someone obviously requete-plans it…)

So I’m back to reality.  Am I happy with it?  Eh…can you please meet me halfway on that one?  After 329-ish days of American bliss, now I get to breathe hot air and bureaucratic idiosyncrasies.  We’re working a bit to hit the “Play” button again I so don’t wanna hit, but if God wants, it’s worth it.  For the next few months, I will challenge myself to write about things that mean to people.  Just challenge me to do it…please, I want to!

Writing these words, I feel in a fuzzy place right now.  (Sorry for the abhorrent nervousness.)  Standing in front of a wide-inch computer monitor brings me memories of all the emotions, blood, toil, sweat, and keys written for God’s glory-and of course, your enjoyment.

In other news, if you can, for a moment, for a brief moment, just think about…

IF you can sum-up your life in one word, what would it be, and why?  I want to know how you think, we’ll start from there.

Of course, any ideas, thoughts, comments, challenges, prayers, anything you need, please don’t hesitate to tell it.

Blessings from Puerto Rico, and your crisitino preferido,
Jose E.