The word inspire inspires me.  I breathe in its meaning…

“From the Latin inspirare, meaning to breathe or blow into. Originally used of a divine or supernatural being in the sense of imparting a truth or idea.”

“Fascinating”, pipes the voice of the flutist within me.

In a moment, I am back on the White Mountain reservation—an invited guest of a friend known and loved by this Apache tribe.

The former Chairman speaks, “Dagot’ee”.  Welcome.  He continues in his native language, a word in English here and there for my benefit, I imagine, as he addresses his people.

He invites me to speak.  I don’t speak Apache.  They don’t speak English.  Curious Apache faces gazing hard into my uncertainty.

Deep breath.

Inspiration comes…I pick up my flute and blow.

And the Ruach of God translates. And His people are inspired.

 Ruach, a Hebrew word for the Spirit of God, translated spirit, breath, or wind by the Hebrew sages.

Air put into motion by divine breath, the sage in me translates.  Poetic and creative.  Life-giving Spirit breath that speaks.

Aslan, the great lion king of Narnia and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea in the storybook knows the Ruach.

“What an extraordinary place!” cried Lucy.  “All those stone animals–and people too! It’s–it’s like a museum.”

“Hush”, said Susan, “Aslan’s doing something.”

Aslan breathes the breath of life upon the creatures turned to stone by the evil witch. And something wonderful happens.  “Everywhere the statues were coming to life”.

Breath that brings life into the extraordinary museums of our lives—those hidden places where nothing is really lost, only waiting to be rediscovered.

“On the branches of the willow trees, we hung our harps and hid our hearts from the enemy”, pens the psalmist.   Yet, we can rest assured that the breath of life will  blow again upon life’s willows.  And when it does, we rediscover what has never really been lost, as we take up our harps and play, born again unto a living hope.

Now, hush…for the Ruach of God is doing something. His breath is ever-moving; breathing life in you and through you.  And by the divine breath of His Spirit, He moves.  He imparts.  He speaks.  He inspires.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  Genesis 2:7 (KJV)