A mid-afternoon breeze is whispering soft and gentle, rustling the spring’s tender green leaves and pinging soft symphonies on the wind chimes. Father Sky has sketched a summer sky, bright and blue. The clouds are large, their bellies the color of cigar smoke. Mother Nature watercolored the sun hot yellow. The birds are enjoying the feeders and the newly mowed grass.

Never fails when the grass is freshly mowed, a large wood thrush comes for a visit. The wood thrush sat erect on the bird bath, like a hood ornament on an old Dodge ram pickup, before he drank and then bathed in the water, splashing and preening his wings. A pair of red breasted grosbeaks and an eastern towhee joined the songbird gang today. I love watching the birds from my perch on the porch swing.

I just saw a large black dragonfly on the porch near me. So beautiful but I hope it wasn’t following the big king snake Balthazar that occasionally visits the porch. Had to shoo Kat away. She wanted to eat it, honestly she probably wanted to torture it. My daddy always called dragonflies “snake doctors.” Said there was usually a snake around when you saw a dragonfly. I sincerely hope one is not around.

A little research and I discovered the dragonfly was really a male Ebony Jewelwing, a broad-winged damselfly, so handsome with his iridescent green body and large black wings. Damselflies have wings that are the same size and shape and dragonflies have different shaped fore and hind wings. Check out the next dragonfly you see. It might be a damselfly.

I am in love with this pleasant breeze as I sit in the swing watching dusk approach. In Bible scripture wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s power. I feel God’s true presence in the whispers of the breeze, his gentle breath in the ending of the day’s light. In Chapter 19 of 1 Kings Elijah feels the presence of God as a “gentle whisper.” Elijah endures an earthquake, powerful wind and fire, all symbols of God’s powers, but he realizes God’s presence is in the quiet breezes.

We don’t have to find God in moments of grandeur, we can feel him in the soft winds of spring. He’s all around us in Mother Earth’s March winds. John 3:8 states, “The wind blows wherever it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So also is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We can hear the wind, feel it brush across our cheeks, watch it bend the tree’s branches, but we can’t see it or know where it’s going.

We don’t see the grace of God or the Holy Spirit but we feel the transformations and the spiritual renewal in our lives when we’re dedicated to our faith. The wind reminds us of God’s power in our lives. We face challenges when the strong winds blow but God’s grace can turn those storm winds into gentle breezes.

“God provides the wind, man must raise the sail.” — St. Augustine