The Power of Words

Words paint pictures, and pictures have a habit of drawing us inside, to find the story, the setting, and the physical space…and we end up smelling the incense, feeling the fabric, tasting new wine, hearing voices, and imagining what it must have been like to be there.

Here are three short phrases that have leapt off the page and hauled me inside recently, like some Star Trek tractor beam:

‘Bless the Lord all you servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord’ Ps 134 v 1

‘This man, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night’ John 3v2

'And it was night’ John 13 v30

Whilst it’s tempting to unload what these passages have been up to moving around in my imagination, I’m really focussing on the authors: the unnamed author of Ps 134, and John, the apostle and close friend of Jesus.

I see them having found a cool spot somewhere, in the evening. There's a table, and a chair at the right height, some ink, a roll of parchment, and, quills poised, they feel impelled to write, to describe a scene, not elaborately but with as few words as possible.

Maybe there are a few lines through words before a sense of completion arrives. And there it is - ink-dried, a rolled-up scroll, submitted to the scribes to copy and distribute.

Maybe money had to change hands. But when all is said and done, the candles are extinguished, and it is night.

And the world and countless lives have been illuminated by a few words.

In thinking about this blog, I have imagined a writer hesitating, pen-poised, wondering whether to include direct or indirect experiences of ‘standing by night’ in their latest writing, and whispering 'Be bold', like the scripture writers, and go ahead.

Also as a ‘note-to-self’ to use a minimum number of words to evoke sensory links in whatever scene I’m attempting to convey.