Did You Catch That?
Last night, as dinner time rolled around, I stood with the door to my refrigerator wide open looking at the empty shelves, wondering what on earth I was going to pull out of the hat to make a meal with. Then, I remembered something a friend of mine once told me. She lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and she has the most amazing thing going on in her life, grocery delivery! I thought to myself, if only I had this service I would never have to look at another empty refrigerator again. I could do a meal plan for the week, call it in, and voila! Dinner is served. No more forgetting to stop for milk, or being too busy to stand in line at the meat counter. Wow, how nice would life be then? If only I had this wonderful service available to me here in Podunkville.
I decided to share this revelation with my youngest son, who is almost sixteen. I knew he would be just as amazed as I am that first, such a thing exists, and second, that it doesn't exist here.
"You know Matthew, there are places where they bring food to you. You just call in the order and they deliver it to your door! Can you believe that?"
My son's reply was, "Yes, mom. They call that room service."
With this I laughed and shook my head. Something had obviously gotten lost in translation. I also had something new to think about. This whole concept of grocery delivery was so clear to me in my head, and I thought it was clearly communicated with the words of my mouth. And yet, it was completely lost. How many other times have I been crystal clear in thought, and as the ideas and thoughts left my mouth, I horribly muddled them in the muck of human language?
The average English speaking person has around 20,000 words. How then, with that at my disposal, had I lost the ability to communicate? Truth is I hadn't lost it. I just didn't have the right combination of words that would trigger the same thought in the person I was talking to. That, and the fact that for some strange reason my family has refused to learn out how to read my mind. I keep thinking someday, they will be able to see in there and all the worlds problems will be solved. Well, at least those that exist within our household. But, I digress.....
There have been times in my walk with Christ, that I will all of a sudden, have a complete revelation. It is an instantaneous download from heaven. A knowledge that I know to be complete, absolute and true. As true as knowing that the sun will rise tomorrow and I will never reach the height of 5'9". The amazing part is that there is no way on this side of heaven could I explain to you what it is that He just poured into my spirit. I could give you the gist. I could point you in the general direction. I could try to begin to choose from the 20,00+ words available to me, and start to string them along in hopes that you could see even just a glimpse, but to give you a complete account, there would not be enough human words in any language to tell you. The language of God transcends all. It pierces the heart and changes you forever. I just can't tell you how.
On the other side of this coin, there are my words to Him. The times that I try to explain things to Him. That I start to grasp at what little I have to choose from in this language and try to spill everything in my heart. It is weak at best. As I stumble along in prayer He inclines His ear. Always listening. Always interested. Never is there a time where He says " I am not understanding you". Never is He offended because something didn't come out quite right. He always gets it! There is a story in the bible where He says "even before you prayed I was on my way". You see He knows me. Before I form the words, He knows me. The true me. The mean me, the nice me, the vulnerable me, the confused me, the frustrated me, the scared me. He gets me and loves me anyway. With or without words.
He knew I was talking about the grocery delivery even if Matthew didn't. With Him I am always understood, no matter what. And in this world of things getting lost in the translation, I find great peace in that.
Psalm 19: 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD
I decided to share this revelation with my youngest son, who is almost sixteen. I knew he would be just as amazed as I am that first, such a thing exists, and second, that it doesn't exist here.
"You know Matthew, there are places where they bring food to you. You just call in the order and they deliver it to your door! Can you believe that?"
My son's reply was, "Yes, mom. They call that room service."
With this I laughed and shook my head. Something had obviously gotten lost in translation. I also had something new to think about. This whole concept of grocery delivery was so clear to me in my head, and I thought it was clearly communicated with the words of my mouth. And yet, it was completely lost. How many other times have I been crystal clear in thought, and as the ideas and thoughts left my mouth, I horribly muddled them in the muck of human language?
The average English speaking person has around 20,000 words. How then, with that at my disposal, had I lost the ability to communicate? Truth is I hadn't lost it. I just didn't have the right combination of words that would trigger the same thought in the person I was talking to. That, and the fact that for some strange reason my family has refused to learn out how to read my mind. I keep thinking someday, they will be able to see in there and all the worlds problems will be solved. Well, at least those that exist within our household. But, I digress.....
There have been times in my walk with Christ, that I will all of a sudden, have a complete revelation. It is an instantaneous download from heaven. A knowledge that I know to be complete, absolute and true. As true as knowing that the sun will rise tomorrow and I will never reach the height of 5'9". The amazing part is that there is no way on this side of heaven could I explain to you what it is that He just poured into my spirit. I could give you the gist. I could point you in the general direction. I could try to begin to choose from the 20,00+ words available to me, and start to string them along in hopes that you could see even just a glimpse, but to give you a complete account, there would not be enough human words in any language to tell you. The language of God transcends all. It pierces the heart and changes you forever. I just can't tell you how.
On the other side of this coin, there are my words to Him. The times that I try to explain things to Him. That I start to grasp at what little I have to choose from in this language and try to spill everything in my heart. It is weak at best. As I stumble along in prayer He inclines His ear. Always listening. Always interested. Never is there a time where He says " I am not understanding you". Never is He offended because something didn't come out quite right. He always gets it! There is a story in the bible where He says "even before you prayed I was on my way". You see He knows me. Before I form the words, He knows me. The true me. The mean me, the nice me, the vulnerable me, the confused me, the frustrated me, the scared me. He gets me and loves me anyway. With or without words.
He knew I was talking about the grocery delivery even if Matthew didn't. With Him I am always understood, no matter what. And in this world of things getting lost in the translation, I find great peace in that.
Psalm 19: 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD
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