Words
Words. Words are powerful. Words give direction. Words move us, shape us. There are times when words break our hearts, fill us with fear, torment us. Sometimes, when they come from one we might respect, we are shamed by their words, hurt by them. They cause our eyes to go blind with tears.
Yes. Still. At other times, words give us strength, courage to move forward. They fill us with hope and promise. Words. It’s one way that we try to communicate with each other. And words come in many forms and languages.
A word I read of recently is the Welsh word “hiraeth”.
Hiraeth (n.) a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past. It’s a wistfulness; nostalgia; longing; homesickness; a deep feeling of yearning for something, someone or somewhere.
In 1971 Neil Diamond released a song titled “I Am…I Said”. In the pre-chorus 1 stanza Diamond sings:
Well I'm New York City born and raised
But nowadays, I'm lost between two shores
L.A.'s fine, but it ain't home
New York's home, but it ain't mine no more
Some years later, Neil Diamond did a made for TV special. He went back to New York, to his old neighborhood. What was his was no longer there. The people he knew were all gone, replaced by folks from another time and culture. None of his family or friends were there. As he and the camera crew walked around talking to people, most of them did not even know who Neil Diamond was. He was not recognized even in his old neighborhood. Because his old neighborhood was gone. Diamond was both saddened and shocked. The funny thing is, he had sung this very thing in his song. His words came back to haunt him, proving true, you can never go home again.
So, back to words. Hiraeth is a sad word, filled with regret. And it leads many to an emptiness that can never be filled. There is a word, however, that can take the place of hiraeth and fill that empty spot in our hearts and lives. The funny thing is, the word IS “Word”. We find it, in the English translation of John chapter 1 of the bible.
In the beginning was the Word…
That Word is not just the word for word. It is something greater. Not really a something but a someone. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That Word is the Divine Logos, the creator of all that we see. Psalm 33:6 “By the word (lógo) of the Lord were the heavens established…” When we see Jesus, the Word, and put our faith and trust in Him, we find that the longings of our hearts are changed from longings for something lost along the way to longings for the glorious future we are moving toward. That Word gives strength and courage. It gives us the ability to move forward.
Paul tells us, no matter how much we suffer in this life, no matter the great loss, the inability to go back to what we lost along the way, the glory that is before us demonstrates that our present suffering is not worth comparing to that coming glory. Romans 8:18.
When we say the word Jesus, we are saying something about the person. Joseph, to whom Mary, the mother of Jesus, was betrothed, considered divorcing Mary because she was with child. He obviously knew the child wasn’t his. Before he could follow through, an angel explained the situation to him. As he was finishing his explanation, he told Joseph to name the child “Jesus” because He was going to save people from their sins. When we look up the word Jesus, we discover that the meaning of the name is “Jehovah is salvation” or “the Lord saves.” It’s a great name, a great word.
Hiraeth is a powerful but sad word, causing us to look backward with hurt and regret. Jesus, the Word, expresses hope, peace, comfort, and a longing for tomorrow and the glory that is to be revealed in us.
So, as we consider words, it would be good to especially consider the Word that came to dwell among us, the Word that is Jesus, the one Word who saves us from our sins.
—Josiah Tilton