Canst Not Tell Whence It Cometh

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, the Savior taught him about the need to be born again.  He explained, “Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:7-8).  I’ve generally considred this description of the wind to be symbolic of how the Spirit teaches us.  We don’t see the Spirit come or go, but we feel in our hearts the witness of the truths of the gospel that we may not fully be able to explain.  We can’t see the wind but we can feel it, and in similar manner we don’t see the Holy Ghost but we can feel the influence of the Spirit in our lives.  Though we can’t explain where the wind comes from or where it goes after we experience it, we do know for certain that it is real because we feel it.  I believe that considering the wind here as a representation of the Holy Ghost is instructive and valid, I realized today as I read this passage that this isn’t the exact comparison that the Savior was making. 

             After describing the way that wind blows the Savior said, “So is every one that is born of the Spirit.”  In other words, those who are born of the Spirit are like the wind that bloweth where it listeth.  Perhaps what He meant is that there is no way to judge with the natural senses those who have been born spiritually born of God.  We should not expect to see something physical to indicate this rebirth of which Christ spoke—like entering the second time in the womb—rather, it can only be discerned spiritually.  Whether examining our own life or in looking at the lives of others, this change that Christ told Nicodemus is essential is difficult to measure or observe externally.  In the Book of Mormon the Savior even spoke of those who “were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (3 Nephi 9:20). 

The Savior may also have been indicating in particular to Nicodemus that He Himself was like this wind of unknown origin and destination.  One of the problems the Pharisees had was in fact discerning the divinity of Christ because they only looked upon those outward actions they could observe.  Christ told them of Himself, “I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go” (John 8:14).  If Nicodemus had been in that crowd, surely He would have recognized the similarity of these words with those the Savior spoke to him about the wind.  The people in general misunderstood where He came from and where He was going.  For example, they accused Him saying, “We be not born of fornication,” incorrectly assuming that He was born from the sin of parents (John 8:14).  At another occasion some argued about where the Messiah would be coming from, “Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” (John 7:41-42)  Indeed, they did not know His true origin but only assumed that which they had heard and had been observed physically.  The Savior came among men like the wind, without revealing “whence [He] cometh, and wither [He] goeth.”  And He may do the same in our life, coming and going unseen via the influence of the Holy Spirit, gradually changing and refining us until we have truly been born again.