Monday was windy. I had to talk myself into taking our dogs on a walk. It wasn’t stormy or too cold or dangerous. It was even a little sunny. But there was a strong east wind and, as I walked, I felt really unsettled. I bought a cup of coffee and the barista said “I love this weather! I love the wind!” I’m not certain anyone has ever said that to me before. I know a lot of people who say the wind makes them feel angry or itchy, but I didn’t know there were people waiting expectantly for it. I generally think of wind as difficult and undesirable but as I was walking home with my coffee and thinking about what would make someone like wind, I noticed that our 18-month-old puppy agrees with the barista. She apparently loves wind. She was wriggling with excitement and kept turning her whole body directly into the wind — ears flying back and a huge dog-grin on her face.
God brought an image to my mind from the original Mary Poppins movie. In the movie Mr. Banks is holding interviews for a new nanny. There is a line of dreary-looking nanny candidates all waiting for their interviews in front of the Banks family’s house. And then the wind changes. The weathervane swivels and suddenly a powerful, new wind comes from the east and blows all of the dreary nannies away. And as the sky clears Mary Poppins descends directly onto the Banks family’s front porch. She rings the bell, introduces herself, and proceeds to bring about beautiful and magical changes in their family.
Wind brings change both physically (sweeping away old leaves and debris and ushering in a new season) and metaphorically. In the Bible, wind is frequently a symbol of the Holy Spirit; it is often used to symbolize God’s power and divine intervention. While I don’t think Walt Disney intended for Mary Poppins to be a theological lesson, it made me smile to think about a couple of parallels between Mary Poppins and Jesus. Like the dreary nannies, the pressures we all feel to strive and work and try to keep up with our culture can be unending and overwhelming. But when the East Wind (Holy Spirit) blows into our lives it blows away all of the expectations of the world, allowing Jesus to knock, introduce Himself, and bring about beautiful and magical change in our lives. If we allow Him to. (Interesting that in the Bible, God and the garden of Eden are said to reside in the east – same as where the wind that brings Mary Poppins comes from.) Similar to the changes Mary Poppins brings in the Banks family, some of the changes Jesus brings feel hard or even impossible but they are ultimately life-giving and healing.
I want to greet the wind and the change in my life with delight and anticipation. Instead of turning away and hunching my shoulders against it, I want to turn toward God and the changes He brings. May we be formed into people who turn our faces expectantly into the Wind; who delight in the blowing of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I am praying this blessing from Walter Brueggemann over our community today:
The news is that God’s wind is blowing,
It may be a breeze that cools and comforts,
It may be a gust that summons you to notice,
It may be a storm that blows you where you have
never been before.
Whatever the wind is in your life,
Pay attention to it …..
And the blessing of God,
Father, Son and Spirit
Will abide with you always.
Amen.
Holly
— Blown by God toward Newness” (by Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People)