Limitless Words

By Susan Lyttek

John 21:25 (NKJV) And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

Spring cleaning is in full force around my house. Part of the agenda this year is going through files and boxes to see if the things within are worth storing any longer. I’ve thrown out dozens (maybe hundreds) of blurry or botched photos, tossed piles of old documents for warranties on products or vehicles we no longer have, and shredded old medical reports and records. 

But what I can’t bring myself to dispose of are the words.

Included in those treasures are three large bins or old journals (I know there are stories I might want to write within their covers!), the short stories written in longhand by my grandmother and mother that I promised myself to decode and publish someday (neither of them had the most legible handwriting), and copies of my published work from greeting cards and calendars to medical and business articles to plays and short stories. The words and the effort that went into their craft are priceless.  Each magazine with my name within it took months of queries and submissions, as well as steeling myself against the repeated rejections.

These days, my rejections and queries, just like this post, and the majority of my written words are virtual. Physically, they don’t add clutter to my house or fill up file drawers. That doesn’t diminish the value of the words. If anything, since they could potentially roam the internet for decades, I should be more careful, not less. 

Words have power.

As children, many of us chanted, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” And as children, we knew that wasn’t true. The insults, name-calling, or verbal hurts, we remember. Unless their physical wounds were repeated or did serious damage, we don’t remember those.

But likewise, the Bible tells us that words have the power to heal, to build up. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. (Proverbs 16:24, NKJV) James 3 also gives warnings to teachers and others who share words to be careful, because “we shall receive a stricter judgment.”

With that kind of responsibility, it might feel tempting to give up writing altogether. It might, except our God is the Word. 

The triune God of the universe speaks, writes, or commands others to write. He is the fount of words, and since He is eternal and everlasting, His words have no end. And since He has made us to have dominion over the works of His hands (paraphrase of Psalm 8), we get access to those words. We have the privilege to share God’s words with a hurting world.

Yes, I know that, as fallen and fractured vessels, not every word we write belongs to God. Maybe even the majority do not. But I also know that there have been passages I’ve written that touch people in ways I never expected. Or sometimes, I go back and read a phrase and am totally humbled because I see a whole lot more of God in it than I do of me.

I think, and this is total eisegesis on my part, that one of the reasons the Bible did not give an exhaustive account of Christ’s life and miracles is that each one of us is a testimony of Jesus’ life and miracles. We, as Christian writers, get the holy privilege to tell the old, old story in unlimited ways, aiming to fill the world with the books that would be written.

When Susan Lyttek was a teen, she wanted to be an oceanographer, then an archaeologist, then a fashion designer, then a spy, then a foreign diplomat. It’s a good thing God called her to become a writer since she can make her characters do whatever interests her in the moment! Visit Susan on her website or Facebook page.