Today we opened the windows. All of the windows.
Throughout the day a gentle breeze was blowing through the house from the open windows facing the woods in the backyard to the open windows facing the street in the front yard. Our home was filled with fresh spring air. The air had floated through the trees which have turned vivid green once again, trees illuminated by a brightly shining sun and framed by the green grass and the blue sky dotted with puffy clouds. The sound of birds singing floated through the windows and filled our home with song. Spring permeated the house with new life.
In Resources for Outdoor Retreats, Bob Grgic wrote "the Hebrews had one word for Spirit, Breath, and Wind - the word was Ruach." In my high school prayer class at Lake Catholic, Mr. Grgic would often remind us of this connection between Spirit, Breath, and Wind, and I remember those experiences in his class when I feel the wind blowing. As our home filled with the spring air blowing through the open windows I was reminded of Ruach once again.
As the wind blowing through the windows filled our entire home and permeated every room and every hallway with spring's new life, the Holy Spirit permeates our entire being and fills us with the new life of Christ. The Spirit reinvigorates us when we are weak. The barrenness of sin and selfishness is replaced with abundant joy and peace of God's grace.
I could not command the breeze to entire our home. It came on its own and it flowed where it pleased. Ruach is sometimes unpredictable and always uncontrollable. But I had to open the windows to allow its presence into our home. Have you opened the windows of your life to allow the Spirit to enter in?
In her book Where Two or Three are Gathered, Florence Caffrey Bourg wrote "What makes a family a domestic church is a habit of interpreting its ordinary life - for better or worse - as the means through which family members are to seek, know, and love the God made known in Jesus Christ." This is one example of how I interpreted an ordinary experience from life in my domestic church. Have you had a similar experience in your domestic church?
