One day I walked out the back doors of my church that sat nestled in the rolling hills of the Great Plains. I ambled up the trail that led to the top of the hill above the church. A soft breeze caressed the land. The azure sky was filled with wispy clouds. It was a warm afternoon and the hills were alive with miles of wheat rustling gently. I couldn’t help but smile. The breeze wasn’t new to me but as I stood there on this day there was something different. The breeze had always been the keeper of what was blessing me now, but I’d chosen not to see. The wheat had always just been wheat and the sky though pretty was still just the sky.

And now as I stood on the hill above the surrounding countryside something happened. The breeze that had caressed the land night and day took on a whole new meaning. It became the breath of God. He had blown me a kiss and as it worked its way across the miles of bending wheat I anticipated its arrival. I stood with my arms outstretched facing the wind and I closed my eyes. And it came. The kiss moved through me and swirled around every fiber of my being. I lit up inside and took a deep breath. It was fresh and palpable. Simply another breath from God but a new beginning for me. For the first time, I knew way down deep inside that the breath — the breeze — was love.

And as it moved through me I opened to its utter goodness. Its joyful lilt. I stood tall upon the hill and yet my being was swept away. I became a child of the universe. Unconditional loving had come to comfort me and I accepted. The gift was mine. I claimed it. And as I did, the blessings poured forth from the depths of my being and I smiled upon the land. I knew that the love was not mine and yet it was me. I knew I had no control but that I could accept. My instincts told me to share. To allow this loving to move through me as I related to others and to this sweet world. The burden of love had been removed from my shoulders. It was no longer mine to find and figure out what to do with. It only was and I had only to let it be and open my heart to its blissful kiss.

And so I walked back down the hill and entered the back door of the church. Nothing had changed and everything was different. The stained glass had always cast a soft colorful glow across the floor, but now it was alive. And it whispered to me. The church whispered to me as the breath of God moved all about. I went to the front doors and opened them both and the breeze moved through my blessed church like never before. I knelt and saw inwardly that the church was becoming my heart and that it no longer symbolized tradition and commandments, but it was alive in its own right for it too stood in the breath of God and became a child of love.

I stood and turned and there before me was a child. A girl with a white dress. Her black hair stirred in the breeze and she smiled. “Isn’t it nice that we’re all children of God?” she said. I nodded, tears flowing down my cheeks. I turned to face the breeze and took in a deep breath — of love. “And isn’t it nice, I answered, that it will always be.” I turned again and she was gone. But her goodness lingered and her innocence filled my heart. I was in love because I knew that we all are — in love. Praise God. And praise for the breeze that is the breath that is the love. And will forever be. Amen.