On Friday (Sept. 21) there was a wind warning in our region. The weather was wild that day.  Multiple tornadoes landed in the Ottawa area, but for us it was mainly wind.  It was gusting between 70 and 90 kilometres per hour.  It's not  hurricane force gales but for our area it was, to quote Winnie the Pooh, “rather blustery”.  As I sat in the comfort of my office, I was watching the wind through the window.  I guess technically I was watching the effects of the wind.  What amazed me was the movement in the trees .  It was like an interpretive dance.  The trunks, branches, leafs and  bushes moved not in unison, but randomly and wildly.  It was like they each had a mind of their own. They shook, swayed and shimmered with reckless abandon, but in isolation of each other. I sat hypnotized by the movements.  It was crunch time for finishing another task, so I pulled my stare away from it.  On a sticky note, I wrote the words:  “Watching the Wind”.

There was no time to reflect on what i'd seen, so I left a reminder to myself.

Later that same day, I was driving by the waterfront in North  Bay.  The wind had picked up even more and the waves were pounding the shoreline.  I had never seen the waves so large before on our lake.  Lake Nipissing is very shallow, so wind causes it to get wavy very quickly.  The wind shook our vehicle as we were parking, and as we began to walk down the boardwalk  it was more difficult than normal.  As I took my phone out of my pocket to take some video , I held on to it a little tighter than normal  afraid it might fly out of my hand. The Chief Commanda 2, our local tourist cruise boat, was docked because the water was too rough to go out.  Another boat that was tied up in the marina looked like it was flying a rubber dingy as a kite. Lots of onlookers were captivated by this awesome display.  Some even went in the water (way to cold for me) wanting to feel the full force of the waves.

 I was struck again as I had been earlier by the power and might of the wind.  I was watching something that I could not see have great impact all around.  It reminded me of DC Talk's song “Mind's Eye”.  In the middle of the song the late Billy Graham's voice says,

“Can you see God, have you ever seen Him?

I've never seen the wind

I seen the effects of the wind

But I've never seen the wind.”

Most of the time I am not keenly aware of the wind.  It appears as a gentle breeze, a slight movement of a branch, a bird soaring in the early evening sky or the slow march of the clouds across the blue horizon.  But on that day I witnessed the wind in full force and I am reminded that although I do not see God, His presence, power and impact are always around me.