“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7).
I was sick for a while some years ago. Because of the nature of my illness, one of my lungs were affected and it was quite painful to draw a deep breath. In order to compensate, I became used to taking shallow breaths and very rarely took long slow breaths, because this sort of breathing caused me some pain.
At first, I barely noticed any change in myself. But as time wore on, the affects of this shallow breathing became apparent. For example, I sing – having studied as a child. And what any experienced singer will tell you is that the trick to singing is in the breathing. In fact, half a singing lesson can be taken up with breathing exercises to develop the lungs and allow the singer to gain the whole range of their vocal range. So, my singing was affected.
But there was more to it than that. The thing that became most difficult for me was to calm myself down. It is very hard to reduce one’s stress if one is unable to take a few deep breaths and count to ten (as my mother taught me as a child).
And so – after surgery and some treatment – I have been able to breathe easily for some time now. And I thank God for this every day.
And I have been thinking about breathing as I have been thinking about Yahweh… You see, when God told Moses His name on Mount Sinai, He told Moses that He is “Yahweh” which means “I AM”. Over time, we have added the vowels to this word to make it easier to pronounce. But the original spelling of the word was “Yhwh”. And really, “Yh” sounds like a breath in, and “wh” sounds like a breath out. So, this means that “Yhwh” is a breath in and out.
In other words, every time we breathe, we are saying God’s name…
“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’ (Exodus 3:14).
And I have been thinking about that gift of breath, because we first hear about breathing in the Book of Genesis. You see, God made human beings in His own image and likeness. He formed us out of clay and then transformed us into His image and likeness by BREATING human life into us…
And I have been thinking about that breath today. Because it occurs to me that it is a truly magnificent gift to have received BREATH from my God. For through that Breath, He made me in His image, and through that breath, I can adore His Holy Name…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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