Words Open A World

Words Open a World

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us.

Romans 15:4

Books amaze me, especially the way writers are able to share their thoughts and ideas with those they may never meet. Words and thoughts can be passed down through generations. Good writing can take you into a new community and can open your heart and mind to another’s point of view.

For many years outsiders didn’t understand the Amish. It wasn’t until the 1920s that Pennsylvania German writers began describing their heritage in English writings that outsiders could begin to understand.

Cornelius Weygandt, a Dutchman and a professor of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote two popular books on traditional Pennsylvania Dutch culture in this period. The Red Hills: A Record of Good Days Outdoors and In, with Things Pennsylvania Dutch, published in 1929, focused primarily on folk art, crafts, and antiques. . . . But most potent of all were his descriptions of the serenity and security of farm life:

What a place was the barn, say, of a November night and the cold falling. The stock, fed and bedded, voice their content with gratulatory noises, as they stir placidly at the pleasant task of eating in warm quarters. It is snug here in the stables. . . . You have a sense of all that mass of hay above you in the great lofts. It is between you and the menace of winter; it will spend but slowly, and keep all the creatures in fine fettle until there is pasture again. It is, directly or indirectly, food and shelter and money in the bank.

We have a window into ancient times and foreign people when we read the Bible. More than that, we are given the inside scoop on God’s plan for humankind, His eternal perspective, and His Fatherly heart. Do you want to be able to share your inner view with another person? Write it down and pass it on. Do you want to know God’s most intimate and loving thoughts? Open the Bible and allow yourself to be ushered into His heart.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for ushering me into Your eternal world through the use of written words.