Of Breath and Sighing
“You’re sighing. What’s wrong?”
Have you ever been asked that by a friend or a loved one? Or maybe you have asked it of them? I have certainly both asked and been asked the question, and it should come as no surprise, as your very breath—and mine—is a physical manifestation (a fancy word for evidence) of the God who lives in us!
When God made man, we were but dirt at first. Genesis 2:7 describes how it was the very breath of God that animated that dirt: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
The breath of God in you is the difference between you being an inanimate object and you being a living being!
One of my favorite illustrations of this—and it is very likely you are familiar with it—comes from Exodus 6, when God speaks to Moses as Yahweh. Many traditions, both Jewish and Christian—remove the vowels in a sign of reverence and write it YHWH. The pronunciation of YHWH mimics that of breathing, which gives significance to every breath you draw from birth to death!
While I find the traditions above fascinating, it is really just another example of mankind discovering another physical iteration of God’s Truth playing out in the intentional and purposeful fashion in which He designed us!
He created us for Himself (Is. 43:21a). So we are nothing unless His breath and life fills us. Once His breath fills us, our purpose is to praise Him (Is. 43:21b), and in fact “everything that has breath” is to “praise the Lord” (Ps. 150:6)!
It is a beautiful reality. God’s breath is the essence of our life. Without it, we return to dust.
So why even bother with consideration of our sighing? Because even your sighing is known and noticed by God!
“All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you” (Ps. 38:9).
The very breath of God is what makes you an animated being, but your God is not distant from the reality that your breath is sometimes labored. Your God took on human form and experienced the most intense version of sighing when His very breath was squeezed from Him as He hung on the cross.
Your God knows what it is to sigh. He knows what it means to be troubled beyond words. He hears your groaning and even your sighing, and He understands.
So today, perhaps your breathing is strong and robust. Perhaps you are full of life and ready to meet the challenge of the day. If so, praise God for the animating breath in your lungs!
Or perhaps your breath is short and only present in the form of sighing. You don’t have words but merely groans and sighing. If so, praise God through your sighing, because He hears and knows those too!
Your God is not distant. He is the substance of your every breath, and the sustaining of your every sigh! He is YHWH!
The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.