Like A Mighty Rushing Wind

Those of you in the plains states yesterday will not have too much trouble figuring where this subject comes from. We had dust, leaves, dogs, cats, trees, and semi-trucks blown over yesterday. The wind tooted all day here. Yup, I said tooted. There is a thin metal lining around my front door, probably something they did back in the good old days, and one place on it makes a sound kind of like a kazoo and trumpet combined. The first time it happened caused no small amount of levitation in me and the cat. Today, the house smells like dust and the yard looks quite different. The leaves are all gone in the exposed areas and piled up in the sheltered ones. What does all of this have to do with grace? Glad I asked that! Yesterday, as the wind cranked up its engine and let out a roar, knocking one tree over just down the block from me, I smelled dust in the air. Grace comes upon us much like that. The initial roar is to free us from the penalty of sin. After that, we sense grace in the air, but we cannot feel or grasp it with our hands.

Daily we learn in God's grace, but the changes can be subtle. We sense the changes in us more than we grasp or feel them. With fine dust in the air, the nose itches and the eyes may burn, but we cannot reach out and sweep the dust from the air. All around us this dust of grace arrives on a mighty rushing wind. Strangely, we do not learn well in the full-blown strength of God's grace, we only sense the grace in the sheltered areas where it settles. After the initial blast, it seems better if God gives us smaller amounts and trains us up gradually over time. This speaks of our first birth in the flesh. We are all fully-trained sinners before the rebirth in Christ. Our re-training as Christians takes a lifetime. Enjoy the smell of dust in the air today, let it remind you of God's grace settling down upon us.

Bucky

P.S. 'Enjoy the smell of dust'? Proof that I have blown a head gasket, for sure.