The Word

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God."  [John 1:1]

This sentence is one of the most famous in the Bible. It begins John's version of the Creation. Notice that in John's version, the Word comes before the heavens, the stars and the earth which God reportedly made first in Genesis 1:1. Over the centuries, people have speculated that the Word means, God's law, or a rational universe, or Jesus.

Have you seen the interview with Maya Angelou that recently aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network? Maya quotes, "In the beginning was the Word." To her, "Words are Things, that permeate the walls, the wallpaper, the furniture, the carpets." They can wound your soul, they can break your spirit.

When Maya was six, her mother's boyfriend molested her. She told someone who did this to her. The man was arrested. The next thing she knew, the police came to her house and reported that the man had died from being kicked.

Maya "knew", in her child's logic, that her words had killed this man. She stopped speaking.

When I was about ten, I stopped speaking, a conscious choice that lasted for about five years. I had given up on humanity, literally given up on people and on their human-ness, their ability to reassure me, to console me, understand me, tend to my needs. I absented myself from human contact by withdrawing into silence.

But my verbal development did not lag. I sat in my room reading voraciously. Like Maya, when I speak, it is as if you are "hearing" a book.

God is The Master of Irony. He is the source of our Redemption, our second chances. I did begin to speak again. Now I have this forum, a place where together, we can communicate, pray, reflect, meditate!

God, let my words be ones of hope, not despair; of love, not hate; of peace, not strife; of courage, not fear!  For the Word is with You. The Word IS you! My words are precious gifts, like jewels. Let me bestow them carefully, lovingly.

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