Words are a wonderful gift of God. I’ve never met a bookstore or book fair that I haven’t liked. However, that is not quite true. I don’t like a closed book store. Not many years ago we had four bookstores in our immediate area. As the nearby Mall went downhill, two stores closed. This summer Borders closed. And at the end of 2011, Barnes and Noble closed its doors. The words have gone away.
Thank God, and that is not just an expression, we have two county libraries nearby. Of course, the Seminary library and bookstore is always an attraction. A few years ago I mentioned at a Bible Class I was teaching that I make frequent use of the Sem. Library. Several retired pastors were in the class. One said, “I never think of going there.” For me, it’s my default destination.
Last week I was filling up with gas at the station down the hill from us. A young man exited a blue pickup. He did not exit alone. He left the door open sharing rap “music” with all around. Since, I was the only one around, I was an exclusive audience. I wondered why he felt compelled to share the vulgar and profane noise coming from his vehicle. (The words were vulgar and profane.) He hadn’t asked me nor had I asked him. Furthermore, I felt no need to leave my door open and blare out the Christmas music from the Cambridge Singers that I was playing at the time. I suppose I could have engaged in a battle of rap “music” versus Christmas carols. The sound system in my Acadia would likely out blast his.
Nevertheless, words are a blessing and just plain fun. Jerry Kieschnick in his weekly blot used the term, “pulchritudinous possessions” in writing about a TV program which featured million dollar rooms interspersed with ads asking for a donation to UNICF of a few dollars a month to support a child in a third world country.
William Kent Krueger, in his mystery novel Vermillion Drift, uses a couple of great words. I had never heard of “susurrus” before. (I needed the unabridged dictionary to find it.) It means murmuring of wind or rustling of leaves. It’s one of those onomatopoetic words. Krueger writes, “If Cork had taken a moment to listen he’d have heard the saw of insect wings and the cry of birds and the susurrus of wind, which was the music of unspoiled wilderness.”
Of course, the most wonderful gift of God is the Word made flesh. Peter said to him, “you have the words of eternal life.” Of him John writes, “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Have a blessed year in the Word and in the words of and about the Word.
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