By Melodious Monk
“But the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell from where it comes or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Thus says Jesus to Nicodemus when he asks how is it possible to be born again. There’s much mystery and depth of meaning to this 3rd chapter of John. This spring, I found a new connection with this scripture in a place I did not expect–Emily Dickinson’s poem, April. She reminds us that Mother Nature is continually teaching us more and more of the beautifully vast depths of the mystery of the spirit, and I’m reminded that we must always be listening for this “wind” of the spirit-as we never know when or how it may come!
April
An altered look about the hills
A Tyrian light the village fills
A wider sunrise in the morn
A deeper twilight on the lawn
A print of a vermillion foot
A purple finger on the slope
A flippant fly upon the pane
A spider at his trade again
An added strut in Chanticleer
A flower expected everywhere
An axe shrill singing in the woods
Fern odors on untraveled roads
All this and more I cannot tell
A furtive look you know as well
And Nicodemus’ Mystery
Receives its annual reply!
Emily Dickinson