During a poetry night at our house, we played a round of “speed friendship” and then ended with the question, “Who is someone who has influenced your life for good?” One of the young men in attendance is only seventeen but he is incredibly talented at uniquely and authentically spotlighting someone in a profound and memorable way. He didn’t get to meet my dad, but he shares this unique ability like my dad. It was shocking to see it being reborn in our midst, it’s a way with words that brings such transformation.  

We had a poet reading for us, who is one of the best in our region. Each of us took turns highlighting her but when it came to the youngest in our group, he blew us all away with his words. What made them so powerful? I would say he has a gift like my dad to say something that penetrates straight to the soul of the person, saying exactly what needs to be said. It’s amazing how skilled cruel people are in the opposite. Some people can say something so hurtful, it can stay with you a lifetime. How do they have a sense of what would hurt the most? This young man and my dad do the opposite. They sense what will ring the truest in the spirit, something that will reverberate for a lifetime.  

I thought of a YouTube video I saw about the harmonic series and how music will tonally ring through many notes though just one note is struck. The presenter, Leonard Bernstein said he believes music is the oldest language and when God said, “Let there be light,” perhaps it was sung.  

This is the Living Word that reverberates through space and time, God as the Word, Jesus as the Word made Flesh. This is what God as Love does. Love is the deep listening to hear what word would bring perfect harmony to a person’s soul. This is how Love speaks.  

No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us. – 1 John 4:12

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