Years ago at our Idaho home, I found a stalk of corn growing in my petunias. This was odd, because the petunia boxes sit on our deck ten feet above ground. No doubt the corn was planted by a bird as a feeder sits on the top deck rail directly above this solitary stalk.

This would be fun, I thought— to sit at the table and watch the progression of an ear of corn overhead. Not ever having been a vegetable gardener, I had a lot to learn. About the time of the first signs of an ear were expected, sprigs of grain-like shoots took off from the trunk and quickly turned to seed. What went wrong?

Recently, I discovered from a farmer the reason my corn could not produce in the petunia box. He told me about the “bull rows,” how corn is planted four rows without tassels and one row with tassels, the tasseled row being the bull row, which would pollinate the others. When the wind blows across the field precious pollen is distributed, allowing a crop to form.

The thought of my “not-so-real corn” has returned, seeming to carry a message. Is it not the wind of the Holy Spirit that blows perpetually and gently upon us, the plantings of the Lord?  Is not this the way we bring life to one another?  Each in turn, borne of the Spirit. Carried from heart to heart, generation after generation, the fruit of goodness/”Godness” has continued throughout the ages.

We are told in the Gospel of John, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8).”

It is no credit of ours that we bear fruit. Only by the wind of the Spirit can this take place. Without the gentle blowing of God’s Spirit across our souls, we stand alone as did my “fake corn,” and finally die. Having no fruit.

The farmer believes another problem existed for my lonely stalk of corn. Having never formed a tassel, it no doubt was of hybrid variety, meaning it was a “one shot” affair. There could be no produce a second year. Man had tampered with it to make it bigger and better. The results?  One glorious show, but not regeneration. No future. Soon deemed to become effete.

Is this not what happens to us when we try to run our lives regardless of God’s plan?  Strangely enough, we think our ways are better. We put ourselves through the mill to be that “somebody” that will do “something significant,” all the time ignoring the fact that deep within God has coded us with His design, one which He knows full well will be most productive and long lasting. Even eternal.

Our part is fairly simple—just to yield to Him a quiet, waiting heart, open and receptive to the wind of the Spirit. Then, the potential crop of fruit lying within can and does come forth.

The plague of the human heart will ever be the same. We want to be noticed and be in control. So we maneuver and may well manipulate. It goes against our nature to yield ourselves to the blowing of the Spirit, to move with Him, to enter into the glorious dance of “yes” to Father God, letting the Master rule and reap in the harvest of the heart.

But, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ all things are possible. Even to the finding of inner strength to bend our wills to His. Funny thing how the will and the knee are connected.

Therein is a bending in which we can better catch the prevailing Wind within this coming New Year.