When Words Fail

 

They say a picture speaks a thousand words and there are definitely times when I think that’s true. I’m fortunate enough to spend a week each year in the Swiss mountains and I can’t explain in words the majesty of the scenery and the deep peace that strikes me as I walk in the sun-lit, snow-dampened quietness.

 

I have similar feelings when I try to explain the cute mischievousness on a toddler’s face, or the love steaming from the eyes of a bride. Those sort of facial expressions are so much easier to picture than to describe. The best I can hope is that my words work like a link to a website: you click on a link and the website opens. You read the words and a picture from your own life experiences comes to mind.

 

  Is that why, as Christians, we tend to focus on concepts like parental love and deep friendship? Even sacrifice. We know what they look like in our own lives, or what a flawed, never-perfect version of them looks like. It’s not a big stretch to imagine a perfect version and apply it to God.

 

But how do we describe God’s majesty and power? How do we communicate the wonder that we feel when we grasp a little bit more of who he is and what he has done for us? If our words seem inadequate to describe the true wonder of creation, how much more inadequate are they when we try and talk about the Creator?

That’s when we reach for similes and metaphors.

God is brighter than the brightest star in the sky

As reliable as the heaviest anchor, secured deep in the deepest seabed

Author Elle Nash says, ‘By pairing one concept with another that is totally different, an apt metaphor has the capacity to expand our understanding both of what is being described and of what’s being used to describe the original object.’*

The Bible is full of comparisons: God is our rock, the kingdom of heaven is like a single pearl. They’re true and can help us explore a concept in more depth. But many of them have become hackneyed; so familiar as to almost be clichés. And our understanding isn’t enhanced by clichés, in fact they’re more likely to make our brain switch off.

Hard as it seems, as writers we need to find new metaphors for the wonder of God. Metaphors that make us sit up and consider anew.

I’m not sure that most of the elderly congregation last Sunday fully appreciated the idea that God is like the lithium-ion batteries in an electric car, and the 12v battery that is used to start the car, that’s prayer. But at least it was a fresh metaphor! I just need to work on fine-tuning it.

*article ‘Enhancing your metaphors’ in Mslexia #105