Remember as a young child, discovering the magic of words and getting lost in reading Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, or delighting in the zaniness of a Dr. Seuss book? No, it wasn’t Shakespeare. It was just good old-fashioned, creative fun.
It seems God instills in each of us an inborn appreciation for words. Words permeate life. They represent ideas. And exchanging these ideas allows us to better communicate with one another, thus fostering relationships. Tellingly, God refers to His very own son as “the Word” (John 1:1). Yes, God certainly seems to love words a great deal. And I believe he designed us to love them too.
In the book, Run with the Horses, author and pastor Eugene Peterson recounts the following: “William Stafford was once asked in an interview, ‘When did you decide to be a poet?’ He responded that the question was put wrongly. ‘Everyone is born a poet–a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just kept on doing…what everyone starts out doing. The real question is why did the other people stop?’” Sobering thought.
I hope this encourages you to be a poet today.
-Kevin Murray
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