Breath of Life

My husband and I have been meditating since early 2013, at first weekly, as part of a group, and of late, daily, using an app on our smart phones. But then almost everybody is meditating these days, or knows someone who is. What was virtually unknown in the western culture just a few decades ago has become an accepted practice.

So I sit there everyday focused on my breath, the breath that has worked consistently over the last 74 years without any conscious effort on my part. But once I give it my undivided attention, my mind either consciously inhales and exhales or I find myself gasping for breath and feeling as if I have stopped breathing.

Over the last number of months I have come to realize that the mind is so into control that once it has the chance of controlling the breathe, that is exactly what it has to do. WOW! This breath I’m watching has been working away unnoticed for my complete life. In fact without it there would be no life. It is that important. Yet, once my attention is focused on it, my mind can’t trust my body to continue what it does so well, feeling the need to
help the process along.

I may say I trust in ‘God’, but if I can’t trust in my own breath, do I? As far as I am aware scientists have not yet been able to make a animal, human or otherwise, out of completely mineral and vegetable matter.. If in fact scientists ever are able to do that, then I’m sure I’m not the only one who will find their theology shaken

However, as I focus on my breath it becomes clearer and clearer why the second creation story talks of God breathing into Adam. Because our breath is our life. Without it, life ceases to exist. And what that story is telling us, is that the ancient people, who first told the story, believed that their very life came from God and was given to them by God. And those who followed them, gave that story a place in the collected writings of their faith. “God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!” Genesis 2:7 [MSG] The same word, ’ruach’ a Hebrew word meaning ‘wind’ or ‘spirit’ is also used in Genesis 1:2 where “God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.”[MSG] and gave life to the world.

So each day I find myself reminded that the wisdom of the ancients saw this 'ruach', that more and more people in this culture are focusing on each day, as being the very breath of God, the source of all life...and that can't be a bad thing, can it!

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