John 3:1-3 (NIV)
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
I’ve always been intrigued by verse 8. After telling us that to be part of God’s family we need to be born again, Jesus tells us that this is a spiritual birth following a physical birth, Spirit following water. That much seems fairly straightforward, we need that heavenly rejuvenation we thought of yesterday. But then Jesus compares those born again to the wind, a phrase that I can never quite pin down. Perhaps that’s the point! There’s an unpredictability, a wildness, a different-ness to God’s people, if we’re in Christ we won’t fit expectations, because he didn’t either.
Father, forgive us when we allow the new to become old, when we settle into our new lives rather than being animated by its wildness. Set us free to be the people you want, not conforming to this age, but your age to come.
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