When I was young, I had asthma. During an asthma attack, my lungs got tight and heavy, and my throat felt like it was closing in on itself. You don’t realize how much you love breathing until you become conscious of the effort a single inhale can take. Though I was filled with panic as my lungs burned with every gasp of air, I was desperately grateful for each breath that followed.
Every single breath is a gift, even the labored ones. Most of us do not need to actively think about every inhale and exhale. But if we stop and consider how many breaths we take every day, even every minute, we notice one way our loving Father sustains us.
God “himself gives everyone life and breath” (Acts 17:25). The same God who first breathed life into humanity continues this gift. It’s incredibly intimate to be that close, to be so close that someone’s breath fills your nostrils. Our Holy God chooses to lean down to us, as sinful and broken as we are, and quicken us with the breath of life.
Over and over, he fills our lungs. Moment by moment, he sustains our lives—even though he knows I sometimes use that breath to praise his name and other times to slander. I defile that precious breath by lying, swearing, and gossiping. God has every right to snatch that air straight out of my chest and deprive me of it forever, yet he shows mercy. I inhale and exhale, again and again, in the faithful providence flowing through my nostrils from the living God.
Oh, how he must love us! I’m in awe of how he sustains us not only during the day, but also at night. When we’re fast asleep, God continues to provide breath in our lungs while we are vulnerable.
Every morning as we wake to the light of a new day, we ought to use our breath to praise God for providing what we never could on our own. We cannot survive without God’s own sustaining breath in our lungs.
God’s breath not only gives us life, but new life as well. God’s breath filled the dry bones of Ezekiel. After he rose from the dead, Jesus told his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and then he breathed on them (Acts 20:22).
Take a moment. Close your eyes. Inhale and exhale.
Picture God so close you can feel the warmth of his breath on your cheeks as he breathes air, his own life-giving gift, into your lungs.
Thank God for this tangible way he so graciously sustains you. Thank God for the gift of breath.