In the Wind

The wind was whistling in the eaves and howling in the chimney. Frequently the windows rattled and bowed at the onslaught. Although the sky was a stunning blue, the elements sounded as though a terrific storm was underway. It was the sound of war.

She bowed her head, praying, knowing that just beyond her eye’s reach, there waged the clash of the ages.

For months it had been working up to this. First the fear and panic as the world was told of a pandemic. Next, the lockdowns and financial hardships. Businesses closed. People were let go from their jobs. Prices began a dizzying spiral upward. Food, fuel, staples all were on the rise. Suicides rose. Domestic violence soared. Hope was being carved away with the precision of a surgeon. People became suspicious of each other. Fear and isolation were increasingly common.

And still the wind blew.

On this day, Palm Sunday, the distant echoes of “Hosanna!” rang in her ears. “Blessed be the One who comes in the name of the Lord…. save us!” The jubilant voices raised as Jesus rode into what would become His final battle and ultimate victory. The crowd’s perception was they would be saved from the immediate. Jesus would become their ruler and release them from the tyranny of the Romans. The despised Romans, who enjoyed putting their heel to the throats of the Hebrews would be vanquished. The persecuting Romans would finally be overthrown.

The parallels of that day to this particular Sunday in April were all too apparent. There was desperation in the land, and division causing fractures and factions. There were shameless acts of perversion, greed, lawlessness, and murder. Countless children were victims of unspeakable crimes.

Was there any doubt the Hosts of Heaven would respond?

As the windchimes began dancing madly once more, she listened to the intensity. The warnings were everywhere, although many seemed oblivious. Were they numb? Were they deliberately ignoring what was before them?

In the atmosphere, Heaven’s Armies were contending for the souls of Man. The dark forces were kept at bay by God’s Spirit and a contingent of believers, the remnant who stubbornly held onto the Word as a shield and sword. There were no coincidences. These individuals had been placed strategically to work out what God had established before the foundation of the world. They had been carefully chosen.

The first Palm Sunday ushered in a week-long march to the cross for Jesus. It began with victory and rejoicing and ended with the earth heaving and shuddering as its Creator cried out, “It is finished!” His death was not what His followers anticipated. His execution was shocking, gruesome, and paralyzing to witness. His very words, “It is finished” seemed to mean “it’s over” to the followers who stood weeping at Golgotha. Their hope was now dead.

And still the wind blew.

Darkness reigned that day. Darkness and the malevolent forces of wickedness thought they had seized the greatest win since the Garden of Eden, when deception had entrapped Adam and Eve to forego the fellowship they had with God in exchange for a deceitful promise to be “like Him”. As Jesus breathed His last, raucous revelry broke out among the demonic spirits. They believed they had won the day.

No one truly knows what took place in the three days following His last breath. Was there an epic struggle in Hell? Did Jesus wrestle the keys of life and death from the fallen? Jesus himself had assured the repentant thief, “This day you will be with me in Paradise…” According to His own words the contest had been truly won.

The world still spins toward its ultimate goal of welcoming back its one-and-only King. It groans in anticipation of being set free and released into paradise lost. Creation itself beckons and longs for the Creator of the Universe to return. And there is this promise from the truly sinless, reigning, remarkable Savior, that He goes to prepare a place for us.

And still the wind blows.

“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
And will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way
In the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet.” Nahum 1:3 NKJV