The other day I was thinking about how my learning of My Language is like ebony wood. No, I wasn’t thinking about it in the sense of how hard it is (ebony is the hardest wood in the world), but more about how a beautiful statue can be carved out of it. Let me explain . . .
Ebony is known as a beautiful black wood, but the outside layers of the wood are actually light colored, as can be seen in the picture. I was thinking about how one day, when I’ll be able to speak My Language clearly and to beautifully convey God’s heart in this language, it will be like a beautiful black statue carved out of ebony. However, my language ability starts more like the wood in this picture – before you can even get to the black part of the wood to carve the statue out of it, you have to chisel through the light-colored wood.
When I try to talk now when I’m in My Village, most of what I say is in Jula, since I only have a limited number of words in my language vocabulary. However, the more I learn and use in my speech, the more it’s like that light-colored layer is being chiseled away and my speech has more and more of the pure black language showing through. One day, Lord willing, I will speak and it will all be that black language, with none of the light-colored Jula popping in to disturb my statue.
However, it won’t be enough to have my speech become purely the black wood. At that point it will still need to be carved and take shape. This can include things like actually putting my words in the right order, choosing the right words, finding good and even beautiful ways to say things, and even putting stories, descriptions, and other expressions together in natural and beautiful ways. Language is a beautiful thing, and isn’t just a string of words or a lump of nice, pure-black ebony wood. It can be carved and shaped to do many different things, things that we can do easily and naturally in our own language, but things that take a lot of work to do in another language.
Pray with me that My Language, as well as the language that comes out of the mouths of all of God’s mouthpieces around the world, becomes something that is beautiful and conveys God’s heart in way that touches the heart of those around us.
(Photo credit: www.core77.com/posts/25523/An-Introduction-To-Wood-Species-Part-9-Ebony)