Like "abide in Me". Or "Christ in you, the hope of glory". Does anyone really get that? But doesn't your spirit quicken to the taste of radiant hope and expansive assent when you read or hear or remember the words?
Some years ago I came across a small book whose title and author I failed to note, and since then I have wished I had not passed over it so quickly. The focus of this book was the hypothesis of a Japanese researcher exploring the power of words. He worked with glass containers of water which he placed separately in a variety of settings, and exposed the water to a range of music and specific spoken words. He then placed drops of water from the containers exposed in these various ways onto freezing slides, so that each drop crystallized.
The book was filled with photos of the variety of resulting crystals. The crystals from water subjected to words like "love", "peace", "happiness", and to light, happy or gentle, soothing music were as one would expect a crystal to look, symmetrical and beautiful. The crystals formed by water droplets surrounded by harsh and hateful words or hard and angry music were irregular, incomplete, or otherwise disfigured.
I have not come across the book again nor heard from any other sources of such a theory, but found myself intrigued by the concept and pondering once again the beauty of the body of literature we know as the Word of God. I have reflected on the potential for illumination that exists in even a portion of one verse of scripture, if it were to wash up on any shore to any person in the world. If that person were able to read those few words and think about them, what questions even a few words could awaken, and what resonance with the human heart.
And then to think of the effect on the human spirit through the generations, the uncounted hundreds of thousands who have gathered weekly and been the listeners as words like "light", "goodness", "love"," joy", "peace", "patience", "kindness", "gentleness", "wisdom", "mercy", "eternal weight of glory", "swallowed up by life", "the God of all comfort", "eternal life", "the hope set before us", "sorrowful yet always rejoicing", "overflowing through many thanksgivings to God", "indescribable gift", "manifold wisdom of God", "the grace of life", "good works", "fitted together", "built together", "riches of His grace", "His kind intention", "forgiveness of our trespasses", "freely bestowed on us in the Beloved", "rich in mercy", "grace abounded all the more", "encourage one another", "love one another", "be kind to one another", "forgive one another", "do not fear", "lift up your heads", "alive to God", "law of the spirit of life", "more than conquerors", "spirit of truth", "full assurance of faith", "be anxious for nothing", "peace of God which surpasses all comprehension", "good things to come", "myriads of angels", "the spirits of righteous men made perfect", "the Father's good pleasure", "blessed and holy", "faithful and true", "the bright morning star", "the glory and honor of the nations", "the Lamb's book of life", "river of the water of life, clear as crystal". . .
This is only the beginning; it goes on and on and on and on and on!
Do we have ANY IDEA how truly blessed we are?! Deeply embedded in the most hidden cells of our bodies and in the smallest backwaters of our psyche are words of life, words of beauty, words of hope, making us supremely rich.
"Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. ...Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into His most excellent harmonies." (Phil. 4:8, The Message Remix)
I have been created for His harmonies.
Oh that these words of illumination and life be our daily portion, and all that is lesser give place to that which beautifies and endures!
