Thursday 20 March 2014

Sensing Lent 14: Wind

It wasn't so much being able to look at a physical object for some spiritual reflection today, but seeing the effect of it on everything else. 

Because it was very windy here. And I was glad to have some cobwebs blown away.

I've always thought wind was a good illustration for atheists, the type who insist on visual proof for anything people say they believe in. 
You can't see God? Well, He doesn't exist then. 

You can't really prove the existence of wind, either, but you can see its effect on everything else.

Wind, though technically invisible, is a powerful picture of the Holy Spirit. Without wishing to wade into theologically tricky waters (which I am just about to do) the Holy Spirit seems to conjure the most dynamic image of the three designations of God, 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit'. 

It would be fascinating to do some research on how people imagine the three persons of the Godhead, but after walking today and seeing everything blowing around, I'm bound to find the wind of the Spirit, the unpredictable, ever changing, fresh, exciting, sometimes dangerous wind, preferable to images of Father (never quite sure how to picture Him, plus the problem of the gendered pronoun) or Son (too many Ladybird Book/Sunday School images of flowing robes and golden hair, and a man, even a resurrected and glorified 'Son of Man', is unable to be in more than one place at a time.)*



Maybe I'm coming over all liberal/feminist/eco-theological, but when it comes to images of the Trinity, I'll settle today for the fronds of a wildly waving willow tree caught up in the essential here and now.


*Aware that some regard ubiquity as a quality of Christ and experienced as 'Real Presence' in bread and wine. But I'm with the late Revd. Gerald Hegarty on this one. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. His Spirit pervades the world, however. I told you I was wading in...

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