What Language does God Speak?

Dr.Fr. Davis George

Once upon a time there was an African boy named Emmanuel.  He was always asking questions.  One day he asked his teacher, “What language does God speaks?”  His teacher scratched his head and said, “I really don’t know.”  So Emmanuel asked the learned people of his village, but they didn’t know either.  Now he became really curious.  He traveled around his country and asked the learned people of our village, “What language does God speak?”  But they merely shook their heads.  Emmanuel was convinced that someone knew.  So he began to travel to other countries.  He even traveled to other continents.  But the answer was always the same.

One night, exhausted by his travels, Emmanuel came to a village called Bethlehem.  He tried to get a room in one of the inns, but the rooms were all filled up.  So he decided to look for a cave outside town.  In the early hours of the morning, he finally found one.  When he stepped inside the cave, however, he saw it was occupied by a couple and a child.  When the young mother saw him, she said, “Welcome, Emmanuel, we’ve been expecting you.”  The boy was stunned.  How did the woman know his name?  He was even more amazed when she said: “For a long time you have been searching the world over to discover what language God speaks.  Now your journey is over.  Tonight you see with your own eyes what language God speaks.  He speaks the language of love.

Emmanuel’s heart overflowed. He fell on his knees before the child and wept for joy.  Now he knew what language God speaks.  God speaks the language of love.  God speaks the one language that every person of every nation of every period of history can understand.  And so Emmanuel stayed a few days, helping Mary and Joseph.  Then it came time to leave.  It came time to tell everyone the “good news” about what language God speaks.  God speaks the language of love.  As Emmanuel walked along by himself, he began to think:  “If I’m to tell everybody about what language God speaks, I’m going to have to speak the language of love myself.  Because that’s the only language everybody in the world understands.”  And so from that day on, Emmanuel began to speak the language that God speaks.  He began the language of love.

It was then that Emmanuel made a beautiful discovery.  When you speak to people in the language of love, they begin to speak it back to you.  They suddenly discover how much better it is.  And once they make this discovery, they never go back to their old language. And so, as Emmanuel made his way back home, you could follow his path, because he left behind him a trail of towns and villages where people began to speak the language of love.

Later on, when somebody told Emmanuel what happened in the town and villages he passed through, he made a second great discovery.  He discovered that this is what God had in mind when he gave one language: the language of love.  God knew that once people began to speak it, they would never go back to their old language – language of indifferent, hatred, selfishness, anger, pride and self righteousness.  What is love?  The Bible says:  “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” (1 Cor 13)

Gary Chapman, in his book, The Five Love Languages, writes about the importance of love and how to communicate love.  He speaks of five love languages – Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.  Many relationships are broken and dreams are shattered because we do not understand each other’s languages.   In this world where we speak so many languages, God chose to speak just one language which could be understood by all – the language of love, the only language of the heart.  “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in his should not perish but have eternal live.  (Jn 3:16)  The greatest gift God could have ever given to the humanity.  Receive this precious gift and experience his unconditional love and acceptance.