The four-year-old was perplexed. She had no trouble wrapping her mind around three languages, but she couldn’t understand why she had to come out of her mommy’s tummy again. According to her insight, that’s what the Sunday school teacher said she should do.

Heidi’s mother, a diplomat’s wife, was the one who relayed her daughter’s query to me as we walked along the beach in Uruguay. Twice a week, after our children were in school we exercised and talked about life, God and unresolved issues. Gretchen was as confused as her daughter by this unconventional idea. Oblivious to other Uruguayans enjoying the fresh morning, I was excited about the chance to explain what Jesus meant about new birth. This mother and daughter were not alone in their philosophical incomprehension. Nicodemus, an intelligent religious leader, asked Jesus the same question, “How can I be born again?”

Spiritual knowledge was a specialty for Nicodemas, but Jesus pointed out his blind spot. The same obscurity that surrounded the Pharisee when he visited the Son of God at night symbolized his state of spiritual darkness: he did not understand his need to be born from above.

The same puzzled expression that Nicodemas must have had settled on Gretchen’s countenance. I explained to her how God’s Spirit must give birth to our spirit to begin our new life with Him. The sun warmed our backs as we walked, and I prayed inwardly that God would warm my friend’s searching heart toward Him.

A gentle breeze began to blow as we neared our destination. I said, “Gretchen, we cannot see the wind, but we can feel its effects. Just as we don’t know where the wind comes from or which direction it will head next, so too God’s Spirit touches people’s lives and prepares them to respond to His promptings.”

We knocked the sand from our shoes as we said our goodbyes for the day. I pray for Gretchen and her little daughter Heidi to respond to the gentle breeze of the Holy Spirit as He woos them to new life in Christ.