I’ve long been fascinated by words. From the time I was three, already reading, I’ve been curious about words, and because I could already read, my first schooling was to be put into first grade, skipping kindergarten. That apparently did last long as placement. The teacher said I talked too much. That led to my mother’s attempts to change my behavior by bribing me with the purchase of a ceramic doll I’d admired in a local shop window. It is a little girl, looking a bit sad, probably because she’d gotten into trouble. She holds a ball in her clenched hands behind her back. I thought she had a story to tell. I named her Nancy. No surprise, I still have the doll, mended several times, and named my daughter Nancy because she is beautiful, like my six-inch tall reminder that I controlled my talking in school, but, indeed, went through kindergarten, then first grade, and learned when it was appropriate to talk, and when it was not!
Words still fascinate me. That’s no doubt why I became a language arts teacher, and more recently, an author. In 2022, I learned several new words: WOKE, long-Covid, and charcuterie. Yesterday, I began my Bible reading at the beginning, Genesis, and highlighted the verbs of creation. They’re all active verbs except for the repeated phrase, “It was good.” Today’s verses from Isaiah 58:10-11 give me a goal for the year–yet another one. Notice the verbs: “FEED the hungry and HELP those in trouble. Then your light WILL SHINE out from the darkness, and the darkness around you WILL BE as bright as day. The Lord WILL GUIDE you continually, WATERING your life when you ARE dry and KEEPING you healthy, too. You WILL BE like a well-WATERED garden, like an ever-FLOWING spring.”
Did you catch the significance of action and the resulting blessings? To summarize, as we SHARE God’s love with the needy, He BLESSES us with guidance and health. He PROVIDES what we need and so much more.
I’ve begun playing a daily word game. It’s fascinating and frustrating, and it reminds me of the power of five letters. It’s called WORDLE. I type in the word on my search bar, then hit world today (ignoring the temptation of hints, etc.), then go to New York Times, which introduces a grid of 30 squares. I use what I think to be a good beginning word for clues because it has three vowels and two useful, I hope, consonants. If gold shows up, the letter is in the day’s word. If green shows up, I even have that letter in the right position in the word. Never has WORDLE used my first line word, but several times I have guessed the elusive word, from the millions of possibilities, on the second or third try. Only twice have I failed to guess the word in the six allotted tries.
I wonder what new words will worm themselves into my 2023 vocabulary list. The title of my twenty-ninth book, probably. All kinds of political terms, of course. The deterrents to illegal border crossings, perhaps. The misuse of terms like aliens, migrants, and intruders, invaders. The synonyms for inflation and overreach. Talking heads will find new ways of telling the same old stories. Perhaps we can retire terms we’ve had to learn: SARS, corona virus, COVID, Monkey Pox, etc. Maybe there won’t be another worldwide pandemic. Maybe we can, here’s a hope, turn our weapons of war and murder into plowshares. Maybe we don’t have to read about assault weapons, machetes, bombs, missile systerms, and war crimes. Wouldn’t that be an improvement?
Perhaps there will be new terms for us, and the coming of the Peaceable Kingdom will begin, where lion and lamb lie down together, and little children are free to play without fear of danger, school shootings, kidnapping, or sex trafficking. Maybe stagflation will give way to free enterprise, the true American dream, and we won’t have to be reminded about equality and equity and human rights. Perhaps we can be a kinder, more generous, more accepting, society without laws telling us we MUST be. And perhaps every human in this great nation of ours can reach his or her full potential and tell the world with words and actions that success story. Then, indeed, when we use the words Happy New Year, we welcome those wishes as true possibilities.
There is hope. In 1901, Maltbie Davenport Babcock, a minister from New York City, wrote the words of a favorite hymn of mine: “This Is My Father’s World.” He told his wife he was going out to see God’s world each day as he took a walk. He describes the rocks,, the sounds of nature, the sky, the sea, the flowers, and all “that declare their Master’s praise.”
But I like to focus on the last verse for such times as these. Here’s what he writes, and I proclaim this to be true as we enter 2023: “This is my Father’s world: Oh, let me ne’er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father’s world: The battle is not done; Jesus Who died, shall be satisfied, And earth and heaven be one.” (hymnary.org, public domain)
Those are worlds of encouragement as we begin January 2, 2023.
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