I am looking forward to the arrival of Spring in a couple of weeks. Signs of this welcomed season are already visible. As the earth moves along its pathway around the sun, it’s the tilt of the earth that makes the northern hemisphere warm up from the winter cold of the past few months. The warming temperatures bring warmer winds to blow away the cold of winter for a new season of green and flowers and kites!
March is a windy month. And that makes me think about our family’s kite. I am not sure which box it’s packed in, but the breezes of this month make me want to dig around in the attic to find it.
It takes wind to make a kite fly, so March is a great month for kites. But wind is only one part of the kite-flying equation. Kites also need a string and a person on the ground holding that string. With that combination, a kite can soar.
That makes me think about the church and what makes us soar. The church needs the wind of God’s Spirit to carry it. That wind hovered over the waters of creation. It blew through the upper room on the Day of Pentecost sending the disciples into the open with good news. And as we work our way through this season of Lent, that wind lifts us steadily toward Easter Day. Like March winds, the Spirit blows into creation bringing a season of new life.
The church also has a strong cord that connects us to the ground. That strong cord is Jesus. He keeps us grounded in a mission and ministry to a world full of hunger and pain and violence. He keeps us grounded in a community defined by his dying and rising.
Is this a Trinitarian image? The Spirit is the wind, Jesus is the string, and God the Father is holding the string and watching and guiding the kite/church as it carries out its great mission.
Together in Christ,
Jon
