a pinwheel

Someone recently sent me a Christmas card in a letter that had a colorful little pinwheel sticker stuck to the envelope. No explanation was offered, which was in the character of the sender. I didn’t ask my friend what it meant, it was in my character. Instead, I studied the meaning of pinwheels and pinwheel symbols.

A pinwheel is a wind-catching design that will briefly harness a small portion of a breeze to circulate the design around its spinning wheel, which is fixed or attached to an axle (such as a stick). Some pinwheels rotate on their axis to relocate the breeze when it changes direction. The earliest evidence of a pinwheel design dates back to China in 400 BC. But, the concept was renewed at various times in various human cultures.

Today, the symbol of a pinwheel, given to someone, is a communication that means “you matter” or “you matter to me.” But I received the symbol in an envelope containing a Christmas card. The sender was a Christian. I’m Christian. I found evidence that the symbol is an early Christian symbol. Christians believe that God is Lord and Master and that God moves us to love him through the Holy Spirit. They also believe that God made a union with a human woman, through the Holy Spirit, to produce a male child, the only son of God, Jesus, who would be the Christ (from which the Christian title derives). The pinwheel symbolizes the capture of the Holy Spirit, who is described to move through all means, but is mostly attributed to moving like the wind. As far as I can determine, the symbol was derived after Pentecost. See The Bible, Acts 2, where the Holy Spirit is described as the sound of a wind blowing violently from Heaven.

Search the web for “Child Jesus with Walker” to see a 1480 painting depicting Jesus as a child, walking upright with the aid of a three-pronged walker. The three rods symbolize God, Holy Spirit and Son of God (Jesus himself). The painter depicts Jesus practicing for the role he would play in bearing man’s sins to his own death and resurrection. Note that the infant Jesus is carrying a pinwheel, implying that the Holy Spirit (in the form of wind) impels him to learn and practice his destiny. The painter created a different scene, on the reverse of this painting, to show an adult Jesus working with his cross, towards his crucifixion site. There is no windlass in the second scene, because the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the heart of Jesus, impels him to fulfill God’s purpose.

What’s in your heart?

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