Exhaust
We developed a small hole in an extension of our exhaust pipe on our car. I'd heard our high-school son, Jamie, asking what the hissing noise was. "Sounds like a hole in their esophagus," I remarked at the suffing air noise I detected when the window was open.
"That's what it is, a hole in the windpipe," my husband nodded agreeably. After a few minutes of reflection, Jamie informed me from the back seat that people don't really breathe air into their lungs, it forces itself in.
"You lower the pressure when your diaphragm contracts, and the air rushes in," he explained. He learned it in Chemistry class, he said.
I never thought of it that way. It reminded me of an explanation I'd heard on the scripture in Luke 16:16. "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man every man presseth into it."
And again in Matthew 11:12-13, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John."
As those knowledgeable in the law realized their shortcomings in fulfilling it, when Jesus came, they were so ready that they pressed in violently on every side. That's why there were 3,000 saved on the day of Pentecost (these were very devout men who knew the law) and one reason the early church grew so rapidly.
As the law reveals our sin, (who has not broken one of the ten commandments?) we become aware of our utter helplessness and hopelessness and turn to the Lord. Only then can true repentance be experienced.
Acknowledging God's holiness and our need of Him should make us desire the breath of His spirit in our lives and allow Him to rush in even as our oxygen-depleted lungs gratefully accept air. He alone can fill the vacuum of an empty life.
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