Is There Something in the Wind?

As I look out of my window on the world, I see pale, new leaves of trees in stark contrast against a cloudy sky. The wind is moving those trees and it isn’t doing so quietly. Just between you and me, I don’t like to hear the wind blow. There’s something unsettling in it; something restless and foreboding.

But, if that sound affects me now, how must it have sounded to my Southern ancestors in 1862 when the Battle of Shiloh began? On April 6, 1917, America entered World War One. I can only imagine the sense of impending evil that may have been whispered on the wind then.

Today, our country is still facing mighty restless and unsettling times. Things are changing. I want to hold onto the solid truths and bedrock beliefs I’ve been taught lest I be swept away into hostile country.I have a basic need for security and hope and familiar surroundings. But I think of the soldiers engaged in those two conflicts which began on this day so many years ago and the countless hearts and lives that were rent in tatters. I wonder what they held onto? What calmed their fears? Who gave them courage?

Maybe the wind is whispering good things; perhaps it is blowing blessings your way and my way. Or perhaps it’s preparing the earth for a good, soaking spring rain. And the only thing in the wind is my wild imagination.