GDSNWHR

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: ‘GDSNWHR’ as in… It’s Christmas and God is now here!

You might find it interesting to know that the text of the Jewish Scriptures, what we commonly call the Old Testament was written, at least up until about the year 1000, in all capital letters. To make it even more interesting, there were no vowels in any of the words—only consonants.

And as if that wasn’t enough, none of the words were separated. So you could “open a Hebrew bible” or unroll a scroll and, reading from right to left, (or from our conventional perspective, from back to front), and encounter one long, extended, string of capital Hebrew characters. So it became rather fascinating, for instance, when the reader got to the words “Help me Lord!” in Psalm 38:22 or Psalm 109:26 and the Hebrew text would appear as seven Hebrew consonants together and look like “HLPMLRD.”

That’s where some context became important. The reader could look at those letters, and without much deciphering or a trip to Scrabble.com, know that the phrase “help me Lord” was buried in those letters. But it wasn’t always so clear. Someone encountering the Hebrew letters “GDSNWHR” might—on a particularly tough day—easily conclude, misunderstand and mistake those letters to mean “God is nowhere” when in reality the intention of the phrase—not to mention the intention of the God of the universe is to communicate to you and to me the clearest, most profound message of all: God is now here.”

You can see how important it is to get that right! Right?

The clearest message of the Christmas season is simply this: God is now here—God is with us! The message that the season of Advent has prepared us for is this: God is now here—God is with us! The message for all who seek the light, hunger for truth, or thirst for hope is this: God is now here—God is with us! The message for every man, woman, and child looking for meaning and purpose in their lives is this: God is now here—God is with us!

The message we bring with us as we lean into a brand new year is this: God is now here—God is with us!

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