The universal language

Bridging the distance between us.

I’m now a week into my rabbit hole of postcards. It started with someone introducing me to the website Postcrossing, where one can send postcards to random people around the globe, and receive them from other strangers. It’s totally my kind of thing.

So, I’ve poured over my archive of photos and illustrations, joyfully selecting a wide variety to print onto card stock. My guiding desire is to fit the image to the receiver’s profile, if possible. Basically, I want to bless arbitrarily chosen others. And the algorithm on the site has obliged: my first five postcards went to Germany, NYC, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan!

English makes this possible. And these days, I’m focusing a fair amount of attention on helping non-native speakers learn our tricky language. My wife and two other women started a ministry at our church they call Talk Time. It’s an hour of conversation for English-language learners, which I scribe.

I am tempted to call English the universal language, but these hour-long sessions keep reminding me how shared experiences don’t need mutual fluency. Connections, even friendships, are aided by a single language, but they can grow without it.

This week, my wife and I decided to visit the Sudanese congregation that meets in our church building. The worship service was entirely in Arabic. I sensed the playful smile of God when the Scripture read aloud turned out to be about the Tower of Babel!

That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Gen.1:9

I felt that confusion as I listened to a service I couldn’t understand. But their joy for the Lord was clear, especially during their singing.

Is there, then, a universal language? Yes, as God was to make clear to me when our small group this week delved into the Pentecost account in Acts 2. In a reversal of Babel, a world of disparate languages all heard the same message:

“We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2: 11)

Most people, I would expect, would consider love to be the one foundational language. But Scripture focuses that: our most unifying experience is experiencing wonder at the love of God displayed through his Son. The universal language is worship. In whatever tongue is used.

Last night, as I listened to a man pray at our Talk Time in his native Ukrainian, my heart was immediately drawn in and lifted. Without understanding a word. And it made me wonder if in the age to come we will all continue praising God in our unique languages – but hearing each other in full, empathetic understanding.

Aided by and unified in the Spirit. To the glory of his grace.

Now, how much can I hint of that on the back of a postcard?

Father God, you dispersed the nations and now you have brought them back together through the unifying work of your Son. Help us to bridge the gaps between us that we may be truly one body.

Reader: when have you experienced this universal language of the “wonders of God”?