"In the Beginning Was the Word . . . "

Having decided to launch myself into the blogosphere, I couldn't help noticing something about the "equipment" on the way. The templates provided by the very helpful people at Blogger.com are filled in with verbiage-- if one may call it that-- that looks like a collision between Cambodian, German, and a few other tongues, followed by some very doggy Latin. And blimey if I wasn't trying to make sense out of it! I could feel where the nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, and all the other parts of speech were, as if it had been written in a real language! Of course, I was doing it according to my understanding of English syntax. Someone who really spoke Cambodian or German would most likely tell me, "No, the verb is there and the noun is there!" But I'd willingly bet that their heads would be wired to want to find sense in that gibberish, too.

For there's something in a human being that wants to find meaning in letters and words. There's something in every person with half an education that will try to find it, when it isn't even there! Think how we spent our teenage years ascribing deep philosophical import to the vacuous lyrics of the rock and roll songs! And no matter how picture-oriented our culture becomes, no matter how badly we mangle our mother-tongue (and we do, we do!), we want our words to carry us into the hearts and minds of other people, and we want to feel that the words of others really convey them to us. We feel instinctively that what we say and what we write is an image and likeness of who we are; or at least, is the image we wish to present to the world. To those around us, we are our words.

And that isn't surprising, is it, since we're made in the image of the Triune God? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Jesus the Word expresses the Father; our words express ourselves.

Only trouble is, our words fall so dismally short of doing that for us! Broken-backed, crippled, loaded with more than they can ever carry, they return to us shamefaced when they-- and we-- are misinterpreted and misunderstood. And I and my words will be no exception. Still, as my blog-rocket gains altitude, I hope my writing can express something worth expressing. And if not, may the Father of mercies cover them with blessed silence!