Below is a lovely social media post on the breath of God,God’s name. Ten years or so ago Rob Bell had a Nooma Video called “Breathe” that illustrated this.. Tonight I watched a beautiful video on God’s Breath of creation, the first of a series of three in the works, promoted by Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen), but produced by another company. It was very soothing, artistic, and lovely. It had me breathing in rhythm with the musical score…..
“There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.
Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels. But scholars and rabis have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds, or aspirated consonants. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing. YH (inhale): WH (exhale).
So a baby’s first cry, his first breath, speaks the name of God. A deep sigh calls His name – or a groan or gasp that is too heavy for mere words. Even an atheist would speak His name unaware that their very breathe is giving constant acknowledgment to God. Likewise, a person leaves this earth with their last breath, when God’s name is no longer filing their lungs.
So when I can’t utter anything else, is my cry calling out His name?
Being alive means I speak His name constantly. Is it heard the loudest when I’m the quietest?
In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs. In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst. In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down. When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage.
When I think about it, breathing is giving him praise. Even in the hardest moments!
This is so beautiful and fills me with emotion every time I grasp the thought. God chose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak every moment we’re alive. All of us, always, everywhere. Waking, sleeping, breathing, with the name of God on our lips.”
By Sandra
Thurman Carporale
Another reflection on breath:
“Our first breath as humans was God’s breath.
Think about that for a moment. I can’t stop thinking about it. All day I’ve been thinking about it. I keep circling back to Genesis 2:7: “Then the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.”
Dust alone does not make us human. Body alone does not make us human. It is the divine breath—the Spirit—that makes us who we are. That divine breath is our soul. Only humans are God-breathed. Only humans carry within themselves that sigh of the divine.
Birth begins with a slap and a cry, but true humanity began with a holy exhale, a divine sigh breathed into clay. The slap wakes the body; the Spirit wakes the soul. The nurse’s hand may start our breathing, but the Potter’s breath makes us human.
You cannot be human without the divine, without the breath of God. To live apart from God’s breath is not really to live at all.
So the question is not just, Are you breathing today? The deeper question is, Has your soul awakened to the Breath within you?
Breathe in. Receive Him.
Prayer
O Breath of God,
You shaped us from dust and made us more—
You breathed into us and we became souls.
Without Your breath we are only clay,
but with Your breath we are alive, awake, human.
Remind us today that our soul is not our own,
but Your holy gift,
the echo of Your sigh within us.
Breathe in us again, Spirit of life.
Fill the hollows of our being with Your presence.
Let every breath bear witness that we are Yours,
and that in You we find what it means to be truly human.
Amen.” Leonard Sweet 8/26/25