If every word that has been written were written on the sky, would the world see the sun? Man’s attempt to build the tower of Babel was thwarted by the Almighty. Man thinks to build it again with bricks of glue and paper.

If every word that man has spoken were spoken all at once, would the world be deafened by the noise? Every man caries his soap box. How often he fails to see that the contents of his platform would benefit from an application of the former contents of his platform, but it is so much easier to carry when empty.

A word is an abstract thing. When written, a mere collection of letters. When spoken, a collection of sounds. A word may be seen, heard, even felt, but of itself it has no substance. Yet our world is defined by words.

What a paradox is the word. Words in the mouth of one are priceless, while the same words in the mouth of another are worthless. They carry the power of destruction and the power of creation. They are a murderer’s knife and a surgeon’s scalpel. They are a deadly poison and a healing tonic.

Oh that we would learn to give value to our words, for the power of the word is in the speaker. How often we toss them around like refuse, taking no thought for where they may land. We expect others to except them as truth, but fail to honor them ourselves. In our anger we throw them at the ones we love, and then don’t understand why they throw them back at us. We see our own bleeding and still fail to understand that the same thing that wounded us also wounded them. We grow our thick skin, which, while it may be less easily damaged, is also less able to feel.

Where is the truth? If we construct an understanding of ourselves and our world with words, where is the foundation that would support such a structure? What an amazing thing, that the creator of the universe would choose as one way to define Himself, “The Word.” The Word brought the earth into existence. The Word created man in His own image. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word is life to us. It is His power delivered to us through His words that provides a standard by which the value of all other words may be judged. The paradoxical word, personified, purified and glorified, is Jesus Himself.

May The Word be the master of your words from this day forward.