Beyond words

November 28, 2006

By Greg Ebie

I have had the opportunity to travel on missions trips to various parts of the world. My first experience was in Puerto Rico working on a building project. In northern Mexico we did children’s ministry in orphanages. In Russia and Germany our teams worked in youth camps and did street ministry. In Chile we had sports ministry teams playing basketball and soccer.

These trips shared one common characteristic — I didn’t know the language. People could talk to me, but I don’t even think it made it in one ear and out the other. Spanish, Russian, German — they were just nonsense sounds to me.

Thankfully there were always some people who spoke English, so we could communicate. Yet as I worked and prayed alongside people who spoke languages I didn’t understand, I discovered another language common to us all — the smile. A smile broke down language barriers and communicated a heart message of love.

“God, mark us with grace
and blessing! Smile!
The whole country will see how you work,
all the godless nations see how you save.”
(Psalm 67:1,2, The Message)

Have you ever thought about God’s native language? In America most of us are accustomed to reading the Scriptures in English; we listen to sermons and prayers in English. When English-speaking believers meditate upon God’s Word, their thoughts are not in Spanish, German or any other foreign tongue; when they say they hear God’s voice speak to them, they hear Him in English.

Does that make God’s native language English? No, God communicates to us in our language and He does the same for those who speak other languages. God’s native language is “God.”

But there is another language God uses to communicate and not just us, but to all the people of the world. It is God’s smile, the language of His love and grace. That divine smile is a language experienced and understood around the world.

D. Greg Ebie is senior pastor of Praise Assembly of God in Garrettsville, Ohio, and an author of Daily Bread devotionals.