The Breath of God

The early light’s sunrise slowly crept up over the horizon this morning, soft orange and pink hues danced across the sky as I took my first drink of steaming hot coffee.  My bible, open in my lap, rested on Psalm 33.

Before I start any kind of reading from a bible study or the Word, I pause to pray.  I ask God to lead me to what He would have me know and learn.  The lessons He shows me are priceless gifts that are tucked away into the corners of my heart ready to be used when I need solace from my Comforter, guidance on how to handle a situation, or simply to remind me of His greatness.

This morning, it was no different.  As I finished my prayer, I dug into the Psalm and the words from verse six leapt off the page: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.  Did you read that?!  By the word of the Lord….by the breath of his mouth.

From the time I was a small child, felt board story sets brought the story of creation to life.  Sunday school teachers placed the sun, the moon, the animals, and Adam and Eve on dusty felt to help us memorize Genesis 1:1 and remind us of the story of how the world came to be.  As an adult, I’ve heard messages from brilliant pastors that recount creation from different perspectives.  I’d never really given much thought to this in the past as the story had become routine and mundane.  That is – until this morning…

God spoke, and the world was created.  He spoke.  His breath—powerful, graceful, elegant, enormous—His gentle breath breathed existence into….existence!  Do you ever have one of those moments where something you’ve known about for a long time just suddenly becomes the most mesmerizing thing you’ve ever thought about?   That’s what this was for me.

Every day, we breathe.  It’s just a natural event that we rarely think twice about.  There’s generally nothing special about how we do it.  But we know it’s significant.  Our breath shouts in anger at being hurt, brings words of encouragement to our friends, and whispers the ‘I love you’ to a sleeping baby.  There’s power in just a single breath.

God’s breath, however, is strong enough to breathe into man’s nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7) and authoritative enough to calm a raging storm (Mark 4).  This image alone is as stunning as the beautiful shades of sunlight I captured this morning.

This image, my dear friends, is the gift He gave me today.  The glorious breath of Jesus breathes life into each and every one of us.  There is joy in knowing that He loves us enough to breathe into our lives every day.  My prayer for you is that you see the joy in it, as well.

~Erin