Words to Grow On

Archive Devotions

January 31, 2005

Breaking the Language Barrier

by:

Francis Rader

I moved to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn , NY just about eight months ago, and one of the many things I absolutely love about this community is its incredible diversity. In the course of a week, without even going out of the office, I can hear Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Gujarati and English. In Home League I'm likely to hear Norwegian and Swedish. If I drive just a few blocks, I see signs in Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Lao, Thai, Hebrew, Greek, German, French and Italian. This is wonderful. But the trouble is: I only speak and understand English.

When someone comes into the office for help, there is very often a language barrier. How is he going to tell me what he needs? How am I going to offer her what we have? How are we going to communicate if we don't speak the same language? Written words are no good. Speaking louder and louder doesn't help. And symbols or gestures could be misinterpreted.

God was having this same kind of problem communicating with us after sin interfered with the wonderful fellowship of the Garden of Eden. God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We just don't speak the same language. So how could God reveal Himself to us? And God wanted to reveal Himself to us. He wanted us to know Him. He created us and designed us so that we would be perfectly fulfilled only in relationship with Him. But there was a language barrier.

God spoke to us through the voices of prophets. He spoke to us through the beauty, complexity and order of the created world. He spoke to us through symbols: the tabernacle, the altar, blood, sacrifices, incense, the bread of the presence, priestly clothing, fire: Here I am! This is what I'm like! I love you! Can you hear me?

But we just weren't getting it. Fire? Scary. Blood? Even more scary. What's He trying to say? I don't know. And I'm not sure I want to know. Moses, you go talk to Him. I'm staying right here.

That's the way it was until Jesus, the eternal 'Word of God,' became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. Now God could be seen and heard and touched. No more language barrier. We could see the expression on His face. We could hear the tone of His voice. We could feel His gentle, powerful touch. In Jesus, we experienced everything God ever wanted to say to us. We saw His glory, the glory of the 'One and Only' who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. We looked at Him and could tell He was God. We were in the very presence of God. That's what the apostle John is saying in his gospel.

Don't you wish you had been there? Don't you wish you could have seen Jesus? Don't you wish you could have heard His voice and looked into His eyes? Don't you wish you could have felt His touch?

Or maybe you have heard His voice. And maybe you have looked into His eyes. And maybe you have felt His touch.

Because there are two miracles of incarnation. The first miracle is a one-time only, never-to-be-repeated event that happened two thousand years ago when the Word became flesh in Jesus and lived among us for a while.

The second miracle can happen again today. Because Jesus didn't just live among us, because He also died for us, and rose again, and returned to heaven, and sent His Holy Spirit, God's word can now become flesh and blood through us, 'His Body,' can move into our neighborhoods and schools and workplaces and homes. Through us, 'His Body,' people from every nation and every language can still look into His eyes and hear His voice and feel His touch and experience His love.

Do you want to be a part of that miracle? I do.

Prayer  

Dear Father, as you spoke to us in a way we could understand . in Jesus, your Word made flesh, speak through us, we pray, so that all people everywhere

will come to know you and your love.

Amen