Gorgeously written essay. I love how you go back and forth and sideways in your learning and love of language and how ultimately, it’s Christ that unifies all these voices for you.
I especially love the sense of how language was part of the dark, inward space in which our being sparked into tendons, irises, etc in the womb, how that echoes Christ's incarnation so beautifully here, how these connections can't be extinguished.
It also gave me something of a sense of what Revelation describes about "every kindred and tongue" singing the song of the redeemed. How much richer it will be than even before Babel, when all our fragmented words are regathered around Jesus.
Thank you for sharing, Sara! I loved comparing and contrasting my experience with yours - Cantonese was my first language but I replaced it with English when I started preschool. And though I barely speak it now, my mother tongue still touches something deep in me when I hear it. Like you and Psalm 23, hearing my own Chinese name in a psalm, as a verb meaning "to comfort", was a profound and beautiful thing for me. I hope studying ancient Hebrew continues to bless you with insight about who God is and who you are in him!
The comments below are so right! I love the way you explore your memories and reflect on them. It seems like you gather threads from history, your childhood, the incarnation and pentecost and weave them together in a beautiful essay about language and the Word. I love it!
"A ribbon of light tied like a promise around my displaced words."
This is poetry! Thank you for writing this. I was interrupted over several weeks but kept coming back because this was such a delight to read, and yet profound and somber. I have seen your work around and now I understand your signature—how lovely.
Stunning, moving work. You make a lot accessible through this linguistic wrestling which has been challenging or even inaccessible for me. You give me another door in. Thank you for this.
Gorgeously written essay. I love how you go back and forth and sideways in your learning and love of language and how ultimately, it’s Christ that unifies all these voices for you.
Beautiful!!
Our papery lexicons scorch to ashes in the fiery brightness of the pronouncement of God. 😍
I loved this. Thank you!
I especially love the sense of how language was part of the dark, inward space in which our being sparked into tendons, irises, etc in the womb, how that echoes Christ's incarnation so beautifully here, how these connections can't be extinguished.
It also gave me something of a sense of what Revelation describes about "every kindred and tongue" singing the song of the redeemed. How much richer it will be than even before Babel, when all our fragmented words are regathered around Jesus.
(Yes, gorgeously written.) Thank you.
Thank you for sharing, Sara! I loved comparing and contrasting my experience with yours - Cantonese was my first language but I replaced it with English when I started preschool. And though I barely speak it now, my mother tongue still touches something deep in me when I hear it. Like you and Psalm 23, hearing my own Chinese name in a psalm, as a verb meaning "to comfort", was a profound and beautiful thing for me. I hope studying ancient Hebrew continues to bless you with insight about who God is and who you are in him!
This was most interesting!! My mother tongue is German, whihc I can still speak, read and write.
Lovely and thought-provoking. ❤️
I think it is beautiful and unlocks something about Babel and Pentecost and te Word who became Flesh
I really enjoyed this article. It touched me on a visceral level.
thank you, Kyoung, for this wonderful journey through linguistics and showing how Jesus put flesh on the Word. I especially love the concepts of :
Our papery lexicons scorch to ashes in the fiery brightness of the pronouncement of God.
the theologian Walls says: that the Incarnation was the ultimate act of translation.
What a beautiful essay/story/truth-telling/saga/prophesy. Thank you! Danke!
The comments below are so right! I love the way you explore your memories and reflect on them. It seems like you gather threads from history, your childhood, the incarnation and pentecost and weave them together in a beautiful essay about language and the Word. I love it!
"A ribbon of light tied like a promise around my displaced words."
This is poetry! Thank you for writing this. I was interrupted over several weeks but kept coming back because this was such a delight to read, and yet profound and somber. I have seen your work around and now I understand your signature—how lovely.
Thank you. Jesus is all over this. Thank you for sharing your gift. This reflection is beautiful and it helps me to see His beauty more clearly.
Stunning, moving work. You make a lot accessible through this linguistic wrestling which has been challenging or even inaccessible for me. You give me another door in. Thank you for this.