Amazing! Simply amazing! I can write a word down on a web page and people I’ve never met, people from all over the world, can read that word and know what I’m saying! The gifts of words, language, and reading are incredible.

    I am reminded of this gift every year with the start of school. My wife is a first grade teacher. Most of her students come to her with a knowledge of the ABC’s, but very few of them are reading. By the end of the school year, however, most of them are reading quite well. They have begun an adventure that connects them to the past, explains current events, and helps them anticipate their future.

    Reading is one of our greatest gifts as humans. It enables us to capture a collection of words, translate them into thoughts, and then understand a message. God loved us so much, that He chose this gift to be a vehicle of communication to us. God could have made it so much more difficult to know Him:

• he could have revealed Himself in the mysteries of the universe and only scientist could know Him
• he could have revealed Himself in philosophy and only philosophers could know Him
• he could have revealed Himself in psychology and only psychologists could know Him

But God chose to reveal Himself in human words so we all could know Him!

    The Bible contains God’s words for us. The Bible tells us of God’s work in our world. It speaks of His majesty, greatness and might. The Scriptures declare His work in HIStory. That He would communicate with us, in words we can understand, at the level of our intellect, says something very important to us about Him and His love for us.

    As amazing as the gift of the Bible is, God was not content to let that be His final word to us. God’s fullest revelation of Himself was Jesus. He is God’s message, God’s Word to us about Himself. Not only did He speak to us in words, He came to us as The Word. Not only can we read about His actions, we can see them in Jesus. He not only tells us of His love for us, but He shows it to us in Jesus.

    So the next time you read the story of Jesus, be reminded of God's three great gifts to us. First, He has given us the ability to read words. Let's use and enjoy this incredible gift. Second, He spoke to us with words in the Bible to teach us about Himself and His will. We must never underestimate the importance of having a book written in human words to reveal the divine will. With Bibles so readily available, we must take advantage of this gift. Third, God sent his Son as the final Word to not only tell us, but show us how much He love us! The only way to adequately thank God for this gift is to surrender our life to that Word as Lord.

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Yes, God gives us a peek at His glory in the wonders of nature, and philosophers can come to see His fingerprints in moral order, and the psychologist can see flashes of His character in human personality. But each of these is just a glimpse of His glory. But it takes human words for Him to explain the peeks, fingerprints, and flashes as He works in our human history.
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“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:18)
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.” (Hebrews 1:1)
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