On words....
So I've been thinking a bit about words. Actually I've been thinking a lot about words.
Huw Williams | 19:40, Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Learning a new language is an illuminating experience. Each day we spend three hours in class straining every last bit of willpower to conjugate the verb, to remember the correct adjective, to identify the correct prepositions. Each simple sentence feels like a mammoth task at the moment.
It gives me a renewed appreciation for my first language. Often I find myself returning home and thumbing the pages of Shakespeare or Housman; after grappling with the unfamiliarity of an alien language, there is something almost ecstatic about having the ability to read these beautiful works with ease and comfort, and with a certain aptitude to appreciate what lives 'between the words' and marvel at the subtlety, the nuance and all the content which transcends the mere literal comprehension of vocabulary. There's something about being surrounded by a language which I don't speak, which sharpens my appreciation of the one that I do, not to mention the desire and the ability to communicate.
And so it is with the Bible. How amazing it is that God should want to communicate with us! We are so familiar with the sight of the multiple copies (and translations) of the Scriptures that we have around our homes, we tend to take the fact that God is a speaking God, a communicating God, for granted. We might often read: "And God said... And God said..." in the opening pages of our Bibles, or we might flick over to the gospels and find that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh." but how often do we stop to think of what our existence would be like were God not a speaking God, were He not a God who delights to communicate His love to us, in His Son?
There's nothing like considering the prospect of living in a city without being able to speak the language to appreciate the opportunity of language learning. But how much greater is our privilege of being able to communicate in loving relationship with the great speaking God of all things through His Son, the Word of God?
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