Zeal, zest, zzzzz’s … zephyr …
I didn’t think it would be easy to wrap up my exploration of gratitude – I had to research “z” words. I was delighted to learn a new word – zephyr!
Zephyr is a gentle breeze.
Today when my husband and I were walking, there was a breeze blowing. I was thankful for that breeze because it was refreshing. It reminded me of the seashore.
I even like a breeze in the house. The ceiling fan is my friend – I use mine every season!
“Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze,
William Wordsworth, from The Prelude
A visitant that while it fans my cheek
Doth seem half conscious of the joy it brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky.
What e’er its mission, the soft breeze can come
To none more grateful than to me; escaped
From the vast city, where I long had pined
A discontented sojourner: now free,
Free as a bird to settle where I will.”
In my search to learn more about the word new to me, I found a few quotes I love!
“The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it. The checks of the Spirit come in the most extraordinarily gentle ways, and if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice you will quench it, and your personal spiritual life will be impaired.”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 13
Nothing can be more potent than the wind when it is thoroughly roused, and so, though the Spirit of God be despised among men, so much so that they do not even believe in his existence, yet let him work with the fulness of his power, and you will see what he can do. He comes softly, breathing like a gentle zephyr, which fans the flowers, but does not dislodge the insect of most gauzy wing, and our hearts are comforted. He comes like a stirring breeze, and we are quickened to a livelier diligence: our sails are hoisted and we fly before the gale.
Charles H. Spurgeon, The Pentecostal Wind and Fire, September 18, 1881
Here we note that the Holy Spirit has a sword. He is quiet as the dew, tender as the anointing oil, soft as the zephyr of eventide, and peaceful as a dove
Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon 2201, April 19, 1891
Of the Father’s heart begotten
Hymn by Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius
Ere the world from chaos rose,
He is Alpha: from that Fountain,
All that is and hath been flows;
He is Omega, of all things
Yet to come the mystic Close,
Evermore and evermore.
Let the storm and summer sunshine,
Gliding stream and sounding shore,
Sea and forest, frost and zephyr,
Day and night their Lord alone;
Let creation join to laud thee
Through the ages evermore,
Evermore and evermore. Amen.
While I love soft breezes … I love the breath of the Spirit more!
The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Job 33:4)
