BABY LANGUAGE AND PRAYER
Christine Wyrtzen
Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.
1 Corinthians 14:10
Christmas is the one time of year most people concentrate on a baby. We think of Mary and then recall our own experiences of holding an infant. Ron and I waited six years before holding Jaime, our first child, in our arms. Three years later, Ryan joined us. When they were newborns, neither was able to talk with intelligible words yet we enjoyed communicating as if we really understood each other. They would coo and I would whisper back, “Oh, is that so!” This back and forth exchange went on for as long as it took for them to fall asleep. Did it matter that we were not speaking concrete thoughts? Not to me. Not to them. It was all about a language of connectedness.
Mary was like any other mother and bonded with her child, the infant Jesus. Could she sense His divinity even though His language was yet without words? What tender stories surrounded His infancy? We’ll never know unless Mary feels led to share some of them with us in heaven.
Communicating with an unseen God is still a mystery. Plunge into the depths of Him and we experience unintelligible language there, too. His glory defies words and though our hearts burst with the wonder of it, human language cannot capture it. Prayer is all about spending time in His presence; connecting, with or without words. The resting is restorative. The love is transformational. The language transcends time and space.
Prayer often takes us to the place where two spirits meet to commune in silence. We meet God on a deeper dimension. Whether my intercession today is filled with words, or is wordless, prayer is to be celebrated. God is a Father who holds me closely, hears my sighs, sees my tears, senses my false starts, and understands each expression perfectly.
Make me fluent in the things of Your Spirit. Amen
Originally published Tuesday, 25 December 2018.
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