Things To Be Thankful For: The Gift of Speech

Sunday 9 October 2011

The Gift of Speech

Would a wonderful gift speech is! Through it we can communicate with God and man.We learn to speak at an early age with often 'mummy' or 'Daddy' being our first words before the selfish ones such 'mine' 'my' or 'I want' become more common. As a gift it can be used for good or evil: with it we can bless or curse.We can plot a murder or plan aid for a starving family.We can sing, we can shout, we can sing love songs or songs of hatred.Through speech we can ask for help and the Bible encourages us to call upon the Name of the Lord in such times.

If we lost our tongue and the power to communicate how poor we would we be. Jesus is described as the living Word because known God's will to us.To communicate with our fellow humans is a gift beyond compare but to communicate with our Maker, our Provider, our Saviour, Friend, Lover and Lord is greater by far. If we haven't spoken to God today, call upon Him now. If you feel unworthy, know that Christ came to seek and save all that were lost and that those who go to Him trusting in His mercy and grace He will never cast out.

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Gracias

In his book entitled “Gracias,” Henri Nouwen talks about his experience in Peru and Bolivia, he writes: "The title of this (book) summarizes what I found, learned, and heard. The word that I kept hearing, wherever I went, was: Gracias! It sounded like the refrain from a long ballad of events. Gracias a usted, gracias a Dios, muchas gracias––thank you, thanks be to God, many thanks! I saw thousands of poor and hungry children, I met many young men and women without money, a job, or a decent place to live. I spent long hours with sick, elderly people, and I witnessed more misery and pain than ever before in my life. But, in the midst of it all, that word lifted me again and again to a new realm of seeing and hearing: 'Gracias! Thanks!”

"In many of the families I visited nothing was certain, nothing predictable, nothing totally safe. Maybe there would be food tomorrow, maybe there would be work tomorrow, maybe there would be peace tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever is given––money, food, work, a handshake, a smile, a good word, or an embrace––is a reason to rejoice and say gracias. What I claim as a right, my friends in Bolivia and Peru received as a gift; what is obvious to me was a joyful surprise to them; what I take for granted, they celebrate in thanksgiving; what for me goes by unnoticed became for them a new occasion to say thanks.”

"And slowly I learned. I learned what I must have forgotten somewhere in my busy, well-planned, and very "useful" life. I learned that everything that is, is freely given by the God of love. All is grace. Light and water, shelter and food, work and free time, children, parents and grandparents, birth and death––it is all given to us. Why? So that we can say gracias, thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and everyone.”