The conversation continues...

I think it's interesting the way conversations, styles, fads and such, come back around again.  I don't like that the things I wore in the late 80's are coming back but when it comes to conversations that make me think, challenge me to dig deeper and ultimately lead be closer to God, then I am excited about that circular nature.

This weekend a friend came from Ottawa to visit our house.  We started having a conversation that was an extension of my conversations on Redemption.  I posted about that conversation, it has been extended with more folks and now came back to my house this weekend.  Circular.....and challenging.

I love language.  I really do.  I love that Rosie studies language and helps me understand it better.  I really love dictionaries, thesauruses and word origins.  I also love the way God uses language to touch us, teach us, inspire us and confuse us.  I think that He uses words specifically and generally, and sometimes it's the accomplishment of just figuring out when I need to pay attention to specific words that creates the learning that He has for me.  The more I dig into God's Word and the more I dig into the specifics of what words He uses, the more alive His Word becomes.

I am less inclined to think that God does not care what word the writer of scripture uses and more inclined to think that He works it out so the best word is chosen.  I love discovering what that means to me and what that might have meant to the people reading the original.

So, Redemption has spark some of this conversation about word origins and meaning.  We discovered that re-deem means to "give back worth and honour", among other definitions.

The new question this weekend was, "Does every word that starts with 're' always mean something is done again?"!!

Oh the joy of looking that one up......I can only let you imagine.  So I looked it up and at first thought.....what could 'gister' mean, really.  But here's what I found:

Register

Originates in English from Olde French 'registre', from Medieval Latin 'registrum', from Late Latin 'regesta', from Latin 'regerere'.  Now 'regerere' means "to record" or literally "to carry back".  Re = back  and gerere = carry, bear

So what does 'register' have to do with God?

It's a good question that I don't have a direct answer to, but may see some learning at a later date, apart from this:

Words have value to God.  He chooses them for His purpose and Breathed out His Word through people to write down.  It is amazing to me that the Bible has remained intact for this long, but that is the wonder of God.  He will keep His Word intact, so that we can come to Him through it.

Re-deem was to give back value or honour.  Re-gister is to carry back 'something'.  The fact that 'Re' means something has just bolstered my faith that God wants us to dig into His word, meditate on it and figure it out; talk about it and bring people into the digging with us.  He did not arbitrarily choose words that 'could' work but breathed out His Word in words that He chose specifically.  He loves word play as much as I do and His Word is alive.  It breathes and the meaning changes as much as it stays the same.  He didn't create language that wouldn't communicate over thousands of years, but choose lauguage that keeps revealing Himself, even from Moses till now.

What a sense of awe and fun I am reminded of about God!