I’ve been thinking a lot about language barriers lately. Not so much the spoken language, as the ones not spoken. A number of years ago, I read a book called The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell. The languages (acts of service, quality time, encouragement, physical touch, gifts) have been on my mind for months, how they look in the grown-up world, and during a recent gathering of relatives, I realized a cause for many generational hurts was that (we) weren’t speaking the same (love) language. I thought about past relationships where misunderstandings may really have been an inability to understand how someone loves/interprets love.
My desire to learn to speak a new (love) language this year has been top of mind, so I wasn’t surprised today when I read of the power a language holds:
“Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!” Genesis 11:6 NLT.
At this time in the Old Testament, everyone spoke the same language and wanted to build a city and tower that would make themselves famous and prevent them from being scattered. God would scatter them, and give them all new languages. Their motive was self-centered–their fame, their protection, their power.
But in life God-centered, God gives us power and possibility and unity–through Christ. He gives us a new law, and a new language–love.
Father, you are the author of love, and love itself. You heal and reconcile our broken hearts. In the vapor-mist brevity of this life, help me to love like you. I know that nothing is impossible with you. Sometimes the brokenness of relationships seems too deep and long, but I don’t want to limit you and your power by my very limited and skeptical thinking. You tell me love never fails, and I know yours doesn’t.
Courtney (66books365)
Sixty-six books in a year 