I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately.
Maybe it’s the presidents’ birthdays and holiday that passed recently. Maybe it’s the winter and the dearth of color and vividness that makes them pop out like that grand golden orb during a sunrise.
Maybe it’s the wind, which has been extra active lately in the hysterical weather this town has been experiencing.
Call me patriotic, but it’s a beautiful sight.
Seeing the invisible fingers of the wind pick up the lifeless stripes and transform them into fluttering freedom.
Seeing the stars emblazoned on that blanket of blue and thinking one of them stands for the state I’m in. Seeing the brilliance of the red against the white. Justice. Purity. Courage.
I’ve been praying for more of that last lately. Courage. Daring.
As life looms large, I leash up my puppy and tie my tennis shoes and go out. I walk the pavement, grinning at the way the leaves skitter over the blacktop as if playing hot potato. That wind again.
My hand clenches over the leash extra-tight when a bumblebee buzzes over a butter-flower in a crack. And I wonder if I’ll ever get it right, wake up one morning with that dose of daring, that gut full of gumption I’ve been wishing for. Or will I always freeze when bees fly by? Shudder when the thought of a tarantula skids across my brain?
Then in a neighbor’s yard, the stripes and the stars dance in the breeze. Out here, I breathe. Out here, I hear the flag snap as if calling me to attention. Out here, I hear the bells in the birdsong. Out here, I hear the laughter in the wind.
Do you think Jesus ever laughed? Does He laugh still? What sends the joy pulsing through His kingly heart so that it skips out as laughter?
When I trip and laugh at myself, does He laugh with me? When I see a squirrel tail-up in a patch of grass, so intent on his cache of nuts that he (or she) doesn’t see my puppy straining at the leash… the wind catches my chuckle… Does He laugh with me then?
Ultimately, is that what the wind reveals? His joy, His love, His life surging through me…
Just as the wind lifts the folds of the flag, He lifts my soul.
Even on doldrum days.
Rachelle Rea says
Loved writing it. :)
Tarissa says
LOVE this post.<br />=D
RJ says
I love the wind. And standing in the rain and wind? Best feeling ever! :)
Rachelle Rea says
Amen, Julia.
Julia says
Beautiful, beautiful. The wind has always reminded me of God's presence. :) Sometimes on my down days, I'll be outside and a little breeze will wash across my face and it feels like the Lord is saying "Here I am, remember me?" :D
Rachelle Rea says
Oh, yes, RJ! I might get the chance to do that today, too, since it's raining here! :)
Rachelle Rea says
Lindsay Marie, ahhh, a fellow Patriotic gal! :) Wow, I had never thought about what it must have felt like to see the Stars and Stripes being lifted by the wind for the first time. How incredible. A little taste of heaven and what it will be like to see Him for the first time, I imagine. :)<br /><br />Seeking to follow, wow. I can only imagine what that must feel like to come "home"
Seeking to follow says
I'm an American living in another country, and whenever I go "home", I always enjoy going through customs. Which probably makes me weird – you've just had a long flight, and you're glad to be standing in line? Ah, but they have the American flags up! They're usually the first flags I see, and they're saying that "this is home, welcome back". :) <br /><
Lindsey Marie says
I, too, love the sound of a snapping flag. The colors always are so beautiful and I love thinking about how proud the Founding Fathers would have been to see it waving for the first time.<br /><br />And yes, it's hard to take a walk without your spirit getting lifted. I totally know what you mean. :)