You Can't Tame the Wind

A still moment

The wind has been raging and then stewing in turn for days here. We’ve had trees downed, power outages and blowing snow. At the moment, we are in a “stewing” phase. My wind chimes – which had been knocking themselves silly against each other – are right now singing pleasantly. But every once in a while, they are stirred up into cacophony again for a few moments. That wind – it’s unpredictable.

I was listening to those chimes today and thinking about a passage from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. (I’ll assume you know the story. If you don’t, it’s one of The Great Reads and you really should find a copy ASAP.) In the passage I’m thinking of, the children have just recently made it all together into Narnia and three of the four are hearing about Aslan for the first time:

“…Asland is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe?”

“…if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe? ...Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

No one ever said anything about God being safe. He’s kind of like the wind – unpredictable. He’s powerful. He’s even dangerous. But He’s good.

The wind can carry the delicate dandelion seed without injury and it can carve holes in mountains. It can lift the little swallows as they leave the nest outside my front windows and it can lift an 875,000 lb., fully loaded 747 off the runway. And just like the wind, God can kiss me with the gentlest of breezes on my cheek or He can completely demolish whatever walls I’ve put up thinking they’ll keep me safe. The problem is, that kind of safe – the kind I build myself – is only about as safe as a prison. Sure, you can’t fall off a mountainside cliff in prison, but falling off a cliff really isn’t the worst thing that could happen to a person. I did it once (fell off a cliff) and let me tell you, there are worse things – like missing out on real life.

Real life – life with the One who thought up life – is really dangerous. God doesn’t play by our rules and He isn’t afraid. Of anything. At all. He’s not even afraid of my sin. Or yours. He has NO FEAR.

Fear makes a person predictable. If you know what someone fears, you can pretty much maneuver and manipulate him into any position you want. But God has NO FEAR. You can’t “manage” Him. You can take Him or leave Him, but you don’t get to tame Him.

I like that about Him. He’s full of surprises. He likes to catch me off guard. He often doesn’t do what I think He'll do (I’ll bet the guy who got Jesus’ spit-n-mud-in-the-eye treatment didn’t see that one coming!). You just never know when He’s got the surprise of your life waiting right around the very next corner. You just never know when He’s about to pounce on you with all His wonderfulness! And sometimes life with Him just might kill you (in a dozen different ways), but what you get in return is always better than what you had. Life with God is exciting!

A scarf turns in the wind (another windy
day, some other windy place)

Nope, you just can’t predict God. And do you want to know something else I think is really exciting? I’m just like Him! Jesus Himself said,

^“So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." (John 3:7-8, The Message)

You can’t tame the wind. You can’t tame God. You don’t get to tame me, either. (I’m smiling.)

No one else could ever make me a better offer.

Ambushed by the God who moves the windchimes, the trees and my heart,

Kimberly