The Meaning of Words

As a kid, we used to sing the song about Rudolph. You know who I’m talking about. That red-nosed reindeer of fame, that savior of Christmas! That bright nose showed the way! A portion of that song spoke about Rudolph going down in history because of his ability. Only, and remember, I was just a kid, but I knew Christmas was not about Santa, elves, trees, or any of the trappings we were surrounded by.

Early on, I always thought about this word: History.

When singing about Rudolph, and the way the song lyrics flowed,
I knew that we were talking about His Story.
Who? Jesus, of course!

Thusly, I started looking at the meaning of words from the variety of life. Where do you put the phonetic focus? We could spell the word the same but pronounce it differently and have new meanings. There, their meanings always came from inside understanding. They’re not fooling me for a minute! English is tricky at times, and I’m sure the same can be said for any language. Once you start down the path of comprehending our words, their history, and varied meanings, you can spend a lifetime deciphering their etymological source.

There are times I wished I was a better student of “words” and could make my living by digging out the history, meaning, and usage of words. As a Bible student, where our modern English translation comes from other languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, German, French, Old English, etc.), I study words.

My confusion is when thinking about the words that describe our words. You must make sense of homophones, homonyms, heteronyms, and homographs! There are categories of study and a language of their own for how you want to study linguistics. To understand any of these categories, you must understand their source and usage.

A Song

Tell me the story of Jesus; write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard.
~Fanny Crosby
[This Song Means a lot to me!]

I woke up this morning thinking about Jesus. The power of his name, the hidden needs we all have when we call on that name. The history of the word and the promise of a redeemer goes further in time than most of us can imagine.

As a kid, riding with my grandmother to town (whether church or shopping), I remember her drifting across the center solid yellow line and calling on Jesus to save her and help her get back into her lane! This taught me the power of trusting his name. Some would say it’s saying a “magical” word like Abracadabra, but when you know Jesus, well, you trust His response to your calling.

There’s power in the word, perhaps in many words, so let’s not use the “word” in vain. Otherwise, you will be like the little boy crying, “Wolf!” No one will come to your calling when there really is a wolf because you’ve fooled them repeatedly!

Jesus even taught this principle, albeit from a different angle.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV

Maybe we need to pause and study our personal use of words and the application of the words we do use. What’s a favorite phrase (someone near me says, “It is what it is…” or word (dadgummit – a euphemism for not using the Lord’s name in vain.) There’s no “maybe” to it. We need to stop and consider our words!