Silver Tongues

The scriptures were read aloud to the elderly that would gather in the frost of those early Sunday mornings.  I found that many of the older generation who came to belief in the Chinese villages were illiterate but longed deeply to know the holy word.  Before the official service time would begin than, portions of the Bible would be read aloud. And they would gather just to hear despite the below freezing temperatures outside, despite the lack of heat in the building, despite the hour or more it took to get to the church.  Just to hear.

My sister Shari has been joining us for dinner and a movie each week. Tonight we dined on a chicken stuffed with fetta cheese, lightly seasoned, wrapped delightfully in prosciutto - a delicious creation.  Last week we watched a children's movie called Ink Heart. It was not very good but I was captivated by the thought of the story.  The premise goes something like this: there are these people called "silver tongues" for when they read a story aloud, the characters actually come to life in the real world. The catch is that someone from the real world is than transported into the story world as if it were reality. Some of the gifted are aware of their gift; others are not. At the beginning of the movie, the silver tongue's wife goes into the story and the evil villain comes out. You can see where the story goes from there. In a terrifying scene (and it was quite terrifying for a children's movie) in the end, the daughter is forced by the villain to read out the worst of all evils, the Shadow, into the real world. She does but in a dramatic twist she begins to add to the story by writing on the pages and speaks the sentences out. When there are no more pages, she writes on her arm for she must read the events in order that they would happen. Speaking truth and love and beauty into reality, she brings salvation to all. The characters return to their stories and she is reunited with her mom.

I think about the elderly in China that long just to hear the Word spoken aloud. To hear it proclaimed before them, warms them in a way that even if there was heat could not do. There is power in spoken word be it scripture or even the words we exchange with one another. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but your words will never hurt me." Regardless of what children may taunt on the playgrounds it is true and we all know it. Words spoken aloud have the power to hurt or to heal.  I love that the creation story begins with God speaking the world into existence. I love that Jesus himself is called the Word and he was with God and he was God when God said "Let there be light."   And when the most terrifying of all moments happened, when God was killed by His own creation, that Word spoke it was finished and on His body, in his blood, with his blood was written the story, our story. We are all silver-tongues of a sort. After all, we are made in the imagine of our Creator.  Let us read aloud than and bring life to another.