Words, glorious words!!!!
I love the sometimes hidden meaning behind them.
It’s like opening a beautiful gift, thinking you know what’s inside, but then finding a gorgeous and unexpected treasure tucked inside the usual wrappings.
The word REIFY flashed across my computer screen already this morning. I never even knew the word existed. But do you know what it means? “to make something abstract more concrete or real”.
The meaning of REIFY is exactly what happened yesterday when another “word package” was opened for me yesterday.
We heard an amazing sermon yesterday, and a portion of it was discovering the true meaning of “glory”. That at the root of the original Hebrew word for glory, are definitions like “weight”, leading to translations of importance and value; reputation and worth.
The “glory of God” is addressed over and over and over in Scripture. In fact, in Exodus 33:19, Moses was told that no human being could see the glory of God (Yahweh) and survive. God’s glory carries so much weight we would be crushed, so much brilliance we would be blinded if we were exposed to all of it while we are here on this earth.
But God shares bursts of His glory through the earthly things we can handle and relate to this side of heaven. The things we see and experience, the people we encounter and love, the gifts of surrounding nature.
And sometimes through miracles, both large and small.
Even when those miracles seem late or backwards.
Yesterday the speaker talked about John 11, where Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, gets sick and dies. (Please read the whole story for full impact!)
Jesus knew Lazarus was sick, and even, of course, knew that he would die. But He allowed all of that to happen for greater impact. He wanted to REIFY the meaning of the spiritual truth of eternal life after death and reveal the GLORY of God by showing those who loved Lazarus something beyond just a miracle.
As our speaker said yesterday, Jesus used the temporary miracle of raising a man from the dead (Lazarus would eventually die again), to illustrate an eternal truth and to reveal more of God’s GLORY – His weight, value, worth, importance, reputation. To say, in essence, “if you think this is good, you should see what awaits you in heaven! God in ALL His GLORY!!!!
REIFY. To make something abstract more concrete or real.
I think I might change the spelling to RE: IF I…. As in, re:if I look a little closer, dig a little deeper, read a little further, I might find more untold treasures.
Yeah. I think I like it…. 🙂
Jeremiah 33:3 – Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
1 Corinthians 2:9 – However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him–…
