Today is beautifully blue, cloudlessly clear, and wondrously windy. Old Man Winter has been huffing and puffing all day. The wind gusts are banging out raucous music making the bamboo forest dance in the cool sunshine, bending and turning, slapping their slender fingers in high fives. The canes are full of male cardinals, their crimson robes buttoned up tight, riding the wind gusts, their thin long toenails latched around the slender branches, their crest feathers blowing in the wind. I’m sure it’s was a wild thrilling ride.

The sun is bright and warm making me think of Walt Whitman’s quote, “Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full dazzling.” I’ve always thought of the sun as a female, her mother’s warmth nurturing the earth. Late afternoon her sunset was a lovely watercolor study of a ripe Georgia peach from its first blush of pink to its luscious burgundy ripeness. The sun began as a silver ball of rays rolling down the horizon till Mother Nature dressed her in a pageant gown of red grapefruit watercolors, so beautiful as the gown’s train spread the grapefruit watercolors all across the horizon. The mystical light of the twilight paled the sunset’s colors and hurried the darkness.

Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight and stepped from the twilight into the inky dark of the nighttime sky. He pulled the moon and stars from their cozy clouds covers and placed them on the stage of darkness to illuminate the world’s dreams. The moon was a luminous beacon of light in the black abyss of the sky, the stars a tapestry of twinkling diamonds. “The moon will guide you through the night with her brightness, but she will always dwell in the darkness, in order to be seen,” Southern Living. Night has awakened gloriously as the day goes to sleep sublimely. 

Been reading quotes and scripture about wind this afternoon. Jimmy Dean writes, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Scripture uses wind as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, a symbol of God’s power. John 3:8 reads, “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.” Just as the wind has the freedom to blow unpredictably, God has given us free will to choose the path we walk. “Listen to the whispers of the wind. It is wise and knows where to take you,” Amara Honeck.

When we follow Jesus’s teachings, our destination to the pearly gates of heaven is a life long commitment. We get blown off the path of Christianity when the storm winds of temptation blow. We can’t change the direction the wind is blowing but we can change our mindset and through prayers and thanksgiving adjust our course to get back on our journey to God and his kingdom of heaven.

Our lives are not always smooth and calm. Our journeys are filled with broken hearts, changes and challenges, all the things we experience that make us human. How we react to the rough currents of the wind as we blow through life determines the rest of our life’s journey. As we learn how to navigate life, we’ll overcome the wind and rough waters, experiencing joy as we learn to travel life with our faith in God. Our entire life is about choices. Let God help you make the right decision.

“Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless.” — Charles H. Spurgeon