The prevailing wind

Years ago, at our Idaho home, I found a stalk of corn growing in my petunias. This was odd as the petunia boxes are on our deck ten feet above ground. No doubt the corn was planted by a bird as the bird feeder hangs on the top deck rail directly above this solitary stalk.

This would be fun, I thought— to sit at the table and watch the growth of an ear of corn while on our patio. Not ever having been a vegetable gardener, I had a lot to learn. About the time of the first signs of an ear were expected, sprigs of grain-like shoots took off from the trunk and quickly turned to seed. What went wrong?

Recently, I discovered from a farmer the reason my corn could not produce in the petunia box. He told me about the “bull rows,” how corn is planted four rows without tassels and one row with tassels; the tasseled row being the bull row, would pollinate the others. When the wind blows across the field pollen is distributed, allowing a crop to form.

Thoughts of my “not-so-real corn” has returned, seeming to carry a spiritual message of how we are the plantings of the Lord. The wind of the Holy Spirit blows perpetually and gently upon us.

John 3:6-8 tells us, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes . . .” (John 3:9-21 explain the “how to” of being “born of the Spirit.”)

We receive truth and we share this truth with others. Thus, we bring life to one another. Each in turn, we are born of the Spirit. Therefore this truth is carried from heart to heart, generation after generation, the fruit of goodness--"Godness.” This is how the truth of our Redeemer has continued for 2,025 years, now.

It is no credit of ours that we bear fruit. Only by the wind of the Spirit can this take place. Without the gentle blowing of God’s Spirit across our souls, we would stand alone as did my “fake corn,” wither and finally die.

The farmer also believed another problem existed for my lonely stalk of corn. Having never formed a tassel, it was no doubt of a hybrid variety, meaning it was a “one shot” affair. There could be no corn for the second year. Man had tampered with it to make it bigger and better. The results? One glorious show, but not regeneration. No future. Soon deemed to become effete.

This is what happens to us when we try to run our lives regardless of God’s plan? Strangely enough, we think our ways are better. We may put ourselves through the mill to be that “somebody” that will do “something significant,” all the time ignoring the fact that deep within God has encoded us with His design, one which He knows full well will be most productive and long lasting. Even eternal.

Our part is fairly simple—just yield Him a quiet, willing heart, open and receptive to the wind of the Spirit. Then, our potential crop of fruit, lying within, can and does come forth.

Our human nature goes against yielding ourselves to the blowing of the Spirit, which means moving with God, entering the glorious dance of “yes”--letting the Master rule and reap in the harvest of the heart.

But, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ all things are possible. Even to the finding of inner strength to bend our wills to His. So hypothetically, both the knee and the will are called to bend when we are walking with the Lord. In this way, we can better catch the prevailing Wind while advancing in our spiritual growth.