The language of unconditional love

The eleventh chapter of Genesis opens with the words, “Now the whole earth had one language.” Because of this, God says, “Nothing they propose to do will be impossible for them.” Then the story of the tower of Babel is told in which God confuses the languages of humankind and scatters them across the earth.

There are approximately 6,800 languages spoken today. Much is impossible for humankind due to what is referred to as The Language Barrier. Computer programs are making it possible to instantly translate from one language to another. Still, translations are not always accurate.

The following are signs and notices found translated into English by people who used translation techniques or thought they knew English as a second language. Instructions printed near an elevator in Leipzig reads, “Only enter lift when lit up.” A Swiss dinner menu boasts, “Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.” Room information in a Yugoslavian hotel touts, “The f lattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.” A Dentist’s advertisement in Hong Kong promises, “Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.”

But what if our world did have a universal language?

A chaplain at a state mental hospital tells of his saddest case—a Greek schizophrenic, hopelessly out of touch with reality, who had been vegetating in the hospital for years. No one paid attention to him, for it was agreed he was beyond help.

The chaplain arranged for a Greek Orthodox priest to visit the patient, as much for giving him a chance to speak his native tongue as for pastoral reasons. The priest, clinically trained, returned shaken from the visit. “What in the world is he doing here? He’s as healthy as you and I!”

Bit by bit, the story came out. The Greek was a maritime deserter. He spoke no English and had gotten into trouble. As happens often through the courts, he was adjudicated to a mental hospital. There, he slowly learned English—but from schizophrenic patients! To the English-speaking psychiatrists, he sounded schizophrenic, as removed from reality as his fellow patients.

The Greek Orthodox priest had conversed with him in Greek, something that had never happened before in the hospital; and when he spoke Greek the man was perfectly normal. The hospital s taff w as humbled and taught by the experience. The Greek was released.

There is a universal language that every human heart understands: the language of unconditional love. It is the language spoken when we recognize, empathize, seek to understand, and join our hearts with those in the struggles of what it is to be human under heaven.

Can you speak the language of the despairing and the hopeless? Do you remember that Jesus was a homeless man?

Can you speak the language of the ostracized? Do you remember the little man of Jericho who was elbowed up a sycamore tree because he had run off every friend he ever had? Do you remember Zaccheaus? Do you remember that Jesus decided to visit his home?

Can you speak the language of the physically infirmed? Jesus once visited the Bethesda Pool. The pool was a spa for the physically afflicted. Jesus went there to visit them. He went there to share his time with the crippled. He went there to heal the sick. And they went on their way rejoicing!

Do you know the language of those burdened with sin and guilt? Of course you do.

The universal language is God’s love for the world made manifest in the seeing, understanding, caring life of Jesus—and you and me. Imagine, if we spoke this language, nothing we proposed to do for God would be impossible.