What the Words Mean

A couple of days ago, I was called to go visit a family in our church who had to take their son to the ER at Children's Hospital. I waited at the check-in desk in the ER behind an Hispanic couple who had brought in their young son who was no more than two years old. The young boy was obviously not feeling well, was crying and his nose was running. The nurse trying to check them in could not understand their Spanish and the couple's English was very poor. She asked them to sit to the side until they could locate an interpreter. After I checked in and waited for the family from our church, I couldn't help but feel for the young Hispanic family. There they sat in the middle of a hospital waiting room surrounded by health-related posters and fliers that detailed hospital policy as well as common hygiene information. Cable news channels were broadcasting just over their shoulder, providing current health-related information as well as updates regarding the H1N1 virus. Yet none of this information was helpful to them. Because they didn't know what the words meant.

That same evening, Tonya and I were involved in a meeting for the parents of kindergarten students. The teacher explained how the children would be learning to read as the year progressed. As I looked around the room at all the display boards and posters and screens, I realized that for many kindergarten students, all these words were no more than slashes and marks and lines of ink on a page. Because they don't yet know what the words mean.

Here's The Point: If you are reading this post, you are obviously able to read. It's also likely if you are a reader of this blog that you are a Christ-follower. Wouldn't it be a travesty for us to have access to The Word (God's Word, the Bible) and not know what the words mean? To have access to a bound copy that we can carry (openly and publicly); to have access to online copies of multiple versions of scripture that we can study and compare; to have the ability to use numerous commentaries and Bible studies; and to still not know what the Word means, would be wasting a wonderful gift.