Ruach

Genesis 1:1-5New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The Hebrew word used in verse two for "wind" is "Ruach." It's the same word that means spirit and breath, just as "pneuma" in Greek, also means "spirit, breath, and wind."

So here in the Genesis poem we have the spirit of God or the breath of God sweeping over the face of the waters just as wind sweeps across the land or water.

What does that tell us about how God's Spirit works in our lives and our communities?

Does the wind of God blow through our lives upturning how things were before?

Ordering the chaos or perhaps creating some chaos where we had things too perfectly ordered?

When you take a deep breath, can you feel the spirit of God giving you life?

When you are winded, do you cry out to God to restore you?

God's Spirit blows where it will.  It enlivens and changes and sustains.

It brings about life and it winds us and brings about struggle.

It is both life giving and fear inducing.

It upends our plans and uproots our traditions.

It blows at our backs to push us along.

It creates and yet can destroy.

Where is the wind today in your life?  Is it at your back? Is it enlivening you or giving you pause?  

Breathe deeply and know that God is giving you life breath by breath.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

    and put a new and right spirit within me.

11 

Do not cast me away from your presence,

    and do not take your holy spirit from me.

12 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

    and sustain in me a willing spirit.  Amen.