"To Name is to Learn the Language of Paradise" (Voice Part II)

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To Name is to learn the Language of Paradise --A. Voskamp

If you hang around me for long, you will know how much I love language. How much I believe in finding words that name, call out, define, explain. There is a mysterious alchemy (change) that happens when we pull something out of our cloud of hurt, name it, give it dimensions and proportions.  That thing that was lurking undefined in the corner is brought out into the light.  The alchemy is that what was dark, wispy and undefined thing becomes malleable-- you can get your hands in it, work with it, make it different. 

"Naming is Edenic...This naming is how the first emptiness of space fills:  the naming of light and land and sky.  The first man's first task is to name. Adam completes creation with his Maker through the act of naming creatures, releasing the land from chaos, from the teeming, unidentifiable mass. " (Voskamp, 2010)

 That fuzzy cloud of "ick" that wraps and covers looses it's power when you sort it out, define it, hold it and look at it. A cloud will wisp through your hands if you try to hold it and change it, but you can wrap your fingers around what you have dimensions for--the "content of your ick" as I so eloquently call it. 

Looking within and calling out by name that which you want to change is what Ann Voskamp  calls "learning the language of paradise".  Like Adam did in outward ways, by naming inwardly what is right and wrong within we bring order to our chaos, start to feel the ability to shape what is within. 

"Naming is to know a thing's function in the cosmos--to name is to solve a mystery"  The function of our feelings is to offer a discernible code from God, a message bearer with "what is the next right thing to do" found within. 


Slow down, look inside, in your journal match it to the clearest word you gravitate to. Then ask the Lord what might be the "next right thing to do" to salve, unwrap, loosen, relish, or move through what you find.  Because we are so far from Eden, it's not always natural or easy work to do. That is what I am here for! I want to pull that apart with you until we find the blessing.  Just reach out and we'll do it. 

Voskamp, Ann. (2010)  One Thousand Gifts.  Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 

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