I am completely enamored of words! I can neither explain nor defend this affection. I am pretty sure it's not a virtue, but I genuinely hope it's not a fault.
I am captivated by a clever turn of phrase or a little romantic rhetoric or a description that transports me vicariously to an emotion or a sensation or a vista. I am charmed by a meaningful metaphor or allegory. A forceful, compelling avowal of conviction causes me to approach ecstacy (if it's a conviction that I share--oh, shame)! Witty repartee makes my heart soar.
I collect quotes. I have a little box with scraps of paper on which I have jotted someone's musing, or philosophy, or observation, or hilarious remark that has struck a chord with me.
It is to my shame, I suppose, that I am not a Hemingway fan. The sparseness of his prose leaves me cold. I feel quite purile (in a literary arena) in this assessment. But honesty demands this confession.
Calvin Miller writes so beautifully that it is rare for me to read his works without weeping. his wonderul allegory in the trilogy "The Singer," "The Song," and "The Finale," leaves me awestruck and unsppeakably grateful to God.
I am especially delighted when an author uses a term that is unfamiliar to me. It sends me eagerly to my dictionary to discover and savor a new word.
Then there is the Bible. I don't read the Bible for well-phrased concepts or eloquence, although it is devoid of neither. I read the Bible for substance, direction, inspiration, perspective and wisdom. I read the Bible to fall ever more deeply in love with it's author. In fact, the Holy Spirit is not given to embellished language. This is never more evident than in the understated descriptions of the torture and crucifixion of Jesus. Consider a single verse in John 19:1, "Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged."
Secular history gives a fuller portrayal of Roman floggings. Many criminals, thus beaten, died from blood loss and shock before ever making it to a cross. The Bible does not go into detail about how the victim was stretched over a board to expose taut flesh to a whip. These whips were most commonly made of strands of leather embedded with rough stones and fragments of metal, designed to shred skin and muscle. But the Bible simply says he was flogged.
God does not attempt to manipulate our emotions. He just gives us the facts and lets us do with those facts whatever our hearts lead us to. Such restaint! And such respect for us--offering us freedom of choice in our responses.
Then there are passages in the Bible that capture the imagination in their articulation of God's very heart. These make me catch my breath and ponder and reread. Here are a few that thrilled me this morning:
Isaiah 40:28-31 "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint."
Isaiah 41:13 "For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
Isaiah 44:22, 23 "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you."
Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
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