The Power of Words

The Power of Words
 
We attended a live trilogy story telling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, Homer’s Odyssey, and Jack & The Bean Stalk, performed by John Tucker Jr. I never studied these classics but was familiar with them enough not to be completely lost. My favorite was the Raven and I’ll tell you why in a moment, even though I found much merit in them all. One was the celebration of the critical thinking involved by the Greeks and their giant horse filled with soldiers, to get through the impenetrable walls of Troy, or Odysseus stuck in a cave with a cyclops, planning his escape before being eaten.
 
Like the power of music, there is power in the spoken word as exhibited by this master storyteller. But the Raven…. the poetic genius of a man in mourning. I could see the ebony-colored raven as it perched outside Poe’s door, but as Poe’s grief and sorrow mounted for his beloved deceased soul mate, the most dear and beautiful of all women, the black raven grew to a gargantuan size! The size of a man actually, the man in the black coat portraying the raven. With arms suddenly turned to wings, as the elbows cocked awkwardly. In my mind’s eye, the raven grew ever so large. Yes!!!! I see!!! The raven, the giant, human-sized raven was in proportion to Poe’s enormous grief! I could see the ominous raven of anxiety sitting outside many a door. A raven of paranoia, or fear or any other such thing that plagues man, as its giant body, silky smooth and shiny, its wings occasionally stretched in anticipation of the moment…. the moment the door opens, and it affords the opportunity to enter the home, the life of the tormented.
 
Yes! I see it! The evil raven of grief that must have so tormented Poe. Never would I have seen that simply from reading it, but the power of the spoken word and a few dramatized body movements open a world that few ever enter. Just as the Bible says, “life and death are in the power of the tongue,” Prov 18:21 and perhaps “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe,”1 Cor 1:21.
 
We’ve experienced the power of music this week and now the power of the spoken word, all proving to me there is a God, a Creator of these strange things, which must be experienced through the Mysterious God given senses, by which we may know Him. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands,” Ps 19:1.
 
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him,” Colossians 1:16.
 
The power behind the spoken word. Even our words can bring life to us or death to us. For our words can grow into giant black ravens, patiently waiting to swoop in and carry us away.
 
Blessings