The One and Only Son

BY Kara Gause

I remember vividly a late July evening the summer our girls turned one. Each cradling a twin babe, my husband and I hurried toward Sunday night church when a rush of warm, forceful wind came out of nowhere and stopped us in our tracks. It swirled violently all around us, but as I tried to hold my girl closer, she pushed away in pure delight. She strained toward the invisible gust of air and tried to capture it, belly-laughing even as it caught her breath.

Mysteries abound here in the physical world, don’t they? Over time, science has illuminated some of them, sure, but to live a life of faith often calls us to embrace the mystery of our creator God. 

Those who walked with Jesus when He walked the earth, who breathed the same air, got to look at Him face-to-face. They could reach out and touch Him as easily as I’m touching the keys of my laptop right now. And Nicodemus had the privilege of hearing God’s plan for salvation under the singular gaze of God in the flesh.

A Pharisee whose heart had not grown hard, Nicodemus was seeking to reconcile his knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures with the Messiah who stood before Him. He asked the same question so many of us have asked: How in the world can a fully grown human be born again? (John 3:4). 

In the stillness of the night, Jesus’s answer is kind yet challenges Nicodemus: “Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (vv.7–8). In other words, if we can so easily accept the nature of the invisible wind created by God, there is room for understanding the work of the Holy Spirit. 

The Father did not hold back in giving us His beloved Son, who lived, died, and continues to love as we never could, “so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Our limited minds want proof of a limitless love and the power of the Spirit to save. But the reality of something so momentous can’t be contained and explained. God’s love is a mystery that comes to life. It is a force of the natural and supernatural worlds, whispering, and wooing us to open our eyes and our hearts to His unfathomable goodness (Psalm 34:8).