In the beginning of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, we read about the “Spirit of God” moving above the oceans. In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, the word for “Spirit” is “Ruah”. It’s onomatopoetic, that is it sounds like what it means, namely breath or wind.

The last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew includes the two words “Holy Spirit”. In Greek, the language of the New Testament, those words are ἀЈἱᾳ ∏VEUµαTα, also translated as “Holy Wind”. Our English word pulmonary, which means lungs, source of our breathing, comes from that word

There are other symbols of the Holy Spirit, i.g., fire and as a dove. But the most common metaphor in scripture in any language is the word for “Wind”.

We all know what the wind is, but we can’t say what it looks like. To be sure, we can see what the wind picks up, such as dust, or smoke, snow or debris of every kind. But the wind itself is something we can feel, but can’t see or describe. Nor can we hold or control the wind. The wind goes where the wind wants to go.

So it is with God the Holy Spirit. There is no gender in God. God is not male nor female. Those are animal and human characteristics, not spiritual. Yet, there is significance that the Old Testament calls God by a feminine word, “nuah”. The New Testament uses a neuter word, “πVEUµα7α”. And in english the Holy Spirit is most often referred to by the masculine pronoun “He”.

One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to comfort. In human terms we most often think of women as our primary comforters.

The Holy Spirit also brings us gifts, such as wisdom and knowledge; along with other gifts such as love, joy, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. None of these gifts have physical characteristics. They are all spiritual – unmeasurable and often undefinable, but nonetheless real. Everyone knows what love is, but no poet has ever fully defined it.

One doesn’t have to be religious to believe in the Holy Spirit. One experiences wisdom, love, and kindness and doesn’t stop to measure or capture them. Love, too, goes where love wants to go. But to refuse to believe in the Holy Spirit is to make our lives less fully alive. Never to have loved is never to have lived well, never to have been fully human.

To enter into the world of the Holy Spirit is to enter into the very life of God. The Spirit leads us into a world of joy and peace.

I used to do a lot of bicycle touring, all across the United States. There are two challenges to touring by bicycle, one is to go up hill, and the other is to go against the wind. I would much rather go up a hill, with the wind at my back than go against the wind, even on a level surface.

In the Gospel of John, after His resurrection, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Just as the breath of God made the first human being, so the breath of God enters into the believer.

All of us spend our lives breathing, but not thinking much about it. The same is true of the breath of God within us. We often forget to use our many gifts – and everyone has gifts – because we don’t pay attention.

To stop breathing is classed in Scripture “giving up the Holy Spirit”, another way of saying “to die”. One doesn’t have to physically die to give up the Spirit. Without love, patience, kindness, or wisdom, one is as good as spiritually dead.

We begin life with the breath of God; we are led through life by our unique, God-given gifts – sometimes even pushed by the wind. And in the end, when we have given up the Holy Spirit, we live forever in the comfort of the loving arms of God.

The Spirit of God goes where the Spirit wants to go. And the Spirit wants us to go with him or her.

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