Advent Week 1

Hope For Those Who Wait

Tuesday, December 3

Beyond Words

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”                                                                                                                                   Romans 8:26-27

            As a long-time teacher of languages and a longer-time vocabulary nerd, I have devoted a lot of hours to words. I have used them to clarify, to explain, to invoke—to make meaning. I am blessed that countless times someone else’s words have bettered me. Yet words can fail. They can be mispronounced, misplaced, misunderstood, misused.

            I have fallen under the frustrating inability to find the right word.

            I have learned that sometimes there is no right word.

            Some experiences are a wordless hollow. Some moments are inexpressible joy. In the soaring, in the searching, in the falling, I find hope in the promise that the Spirit knows a language beyond words. Not only can the Spirit intercede beyond language’s limits; it will intercede beyond those limits. What a gift in light of our shortcomings. The Spirit knows us and helps us beyond words.

--Jennifer Beckett