“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21
Don’t you just love languages? The English language is my first language so I’d like to say I know it well. Words can be so rich and full of meaning in whatever language you speak and with whatever accent you have.
Melanie asked me this week if ASL was one of the languages at the Tower of Babel. Kudos for her to be thinking. She must be a product of homeschooling. But all joking aside, I have often wondered how it felt at the Tower of Babel to not be able to understand your neighbor.
This week with our eldest daughter off to Canada for a year or more. Melanie and I were left with the responsibility of signing for our deaf friends at church. Because Emilie has been the only one interpreting, I guess I assumed they’d fade away to other churches. Praise the Lord they want to keep coming.
Our church is small but we love it. It has the feeling of attending a weekly Bible study, singing hymns of praise to God and fellowshipping with the brethren.
This to me is the pattern of the early church in Acts.
In Acts 2:42, we see what happened when people were saved and added to the church. “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
So, I understand the need to remain in a church where you believe God wants you. I also understand the desire to be at a church that just encourages you, challenges you and worships with you.
When my eldest daughter said the deaf would be staying, I brushed off my ASL from 30+ years ago. Melanie and I have been preparing.
Why? Needs must!
The British say this often as I just love this phrase. I do not have a great talent for learning languages but I enjoy studying about different words in different languages. Though the British, Americans and Canadians all speak English, we all say some things differently. This is how it is with ASL. Languages, obviously, evolve over time and develop their own phrases, expressions and ways of saying things. ASL is no different. It is a beautiful language full of gestures, signs and symbols that make it so expressive.
The Tower of Babel might have been a chaotic time for the people. God brought judgement on them there for desiring to reach Him on their own terms but the languages that have come forth from this are beautiful indeed.
I’m grateful today that my parents had me learning ASL in college. Grateful for the one deaf boy, David, who showed up at our church desiring to come. I started interpreting and with the help of others we made sure he was able to participate in the services. Incidentally, he grew up married and they are still in church today!
Melanie is 10 years old and is impressing me with not only her desire to sign and be a friend to the deaf but her knowledge already. I’m finding the signs are coming back to me in part because for years I have worshiped my God in song while signing because I find ASL becomes a truly beautiful way to praise Him.
God created us in His image.
He diversified the languages because of man’s arrogance but I’m so glad He gave us the talent today to learn each other’s languages so we can communicate the gospel to others.
If you need me tomorrow, you’ll find me worshiping God with my hands, signing a sermon (probably stuttering with said hands) and doing my best to understand what the deaf are trying to tell me. But within this picture you will see a heart of gold in the people who come and a love for the Lord as they allow us to speak to them in their own language!
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29