The South Wind

This morning it was cold in the house. Colder when I got out of the shower but I had a treat. The dryer was going and I decided to wear what had just finished drying. Ahhhh...warm pants and a soft warm sweater plus the lovely fragrance infused by a dryer sheet! (Sometimes it's the small luxuries that make my day.)

I had just been reading about the South Wind in the scriptures and I had been calling to it in prayer. Calling as in petitioning God to send it. "How thy garments are warm when He quieteth the earth by the south wind." Job 37:17

"Quieteth the earth... when He quieteth the earth..." That found a place in me. The way that phrase settled into my soul was like a warm embrace.

A devotional I was reading refers to the south wind as the spring wind of growth following the winter of cleansing. The spring wind smells like newly dug ground, like green buds and spring blossoms. The earth is active but peaceful.

I want the Lord to quiet my ground. I want my ground to be at peace with God, to be in agreement with His plan for it like the relationship between the Spouse-Bride and the Husbandman-Bridegroom. "Awake,O north wind; and come thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out..." Songs 4:16

We have a scent the world needs. A scent that delights our own hearts. It is the scent upon us of the Bridegroom's garments. That is what the south wind is meant to carry over the wall and into the world. That scent heals, encourages and awakens dreams. That scent transports us into the Presence.

When John moved to Amarillo to minister he went 6 mos before I could join him. I used to go stand in his closet and smell some of the jackets he left behind. One really lonely night I slept in one of them. I mean I REALLY SLEPT in one of them as in the warmth and comfort of John quieted my heart and I slept without the fitfulness that characterized his absence.(Now when he is gone I sleep with a gun, and while it makes me feel safe, it does not rise to the standard of that long ago jacket.)

The south wind is the strong, warm, lovingly devoted embrace of Christ, ripe with the promise of His fruitful intentions toward us; something wonderful to fall asleep in and wake up to.

Be Thou my vision O Lord of my heart

Be all else naught to me save that Thou art

Be Thou my best thought by day or by night

Both waking and sleeping, Thy Presence, my light
(Irish hymn)

Come thou south wind...

(Offered today in honor of Jan Collins and Sue Taylor, special women, whose friendships lavished upon me have always been as welcome breezes in a stuffy world. Many thanks. kl)