As a school teacher, I’ve recognized the common belief that teachers often get sick at the end of the semester. Especially during the winter months, teachers, students, and administrators are bombarded with aggressive suggestions about what’s referred to as the cold and flu season.

One year, five days away from the end of the semester, symptoms of a sore throat and cold were hitting me hard. I decided to study the weekly Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly (comprised of passages from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy) for inspiration and help. One of the passages I read states, “Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds the ‘wind in His fists;’ and this teaching accords with Science and harmony” (Science and Health, p. 192). In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, definitions of wind include “a force or agency that carries along or influences,” and “a destructive force or influence.” 

Because I teach English, I am often on the lookout for metaphors. In thinking about the “wind” of influence, I realized that there was a feeling of antagonism between teachers and administration at this time. Classes were being switched and student schedules changed without teacher input or feedback, and this was causing tension. I saw this emotional upheaval as connected to the concept of wind as a destructive force. But whether the wind seemed to be manifested in contagion or in negative and angry thoughts “blowing” through the school, I understood that God has “the ‘wind in His fists.’ ” To me, this means there is no outside force opposed to God.