The stairway I climb is narrow…

Confining.

Tight.

The Bethlehem Inn stairwell.

As I wind my way upstairs, I notice a big red metal box attached to a wall on each floor. It’s a can’t-miss-it sight (although I’ve been up and down these stairs multiple times and missed the “can’t-miss” item every single time until the early hours of my first morning in Bethlehem—and, yes, it’s that Bethlehem).

The box seems to contain emergency items. I’m guessing because the instructions are in Hebrew, a language of which I have next-to-zero knowledge. All I can say about Hebrew is “Yep, that’s Hebrew all right.” Even then I admit I could be wrong.

Emergency Box?

What good are essential instructions if you can’t read the information? You need a guide or interpreter who understands the language and desires to connect you with the message.

Which raises questions about the ONE.

First, what language does He speak?

He speaks a holy language, one set apart and distinctive from our world. He speaks mysteries and wonders and truth.

Do we speak His language?

No!

Perhaps I should amend my answer. I can’t answer for you, but I know that I don’t speak a holy language, one veiled in mystery, wonder, and truth. I want to speak that language and I definitely want to understand it.

But I can’t. It’s too foreign for my mind to understand and too unfamiliar for my heart to embrace.

Can we find an Interpreter—one who knows us and who understands the holy language?

Yes!

Well, again I should amend my answer. We don’t find Him. He finds us.

The UNSEEN PRESENCE speaks in our heart language. He carries our words to the ONE. He interprets the ONE’s message and delivers it into our lives.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27 NIV).

Talk about the need to understand the information. What’s more important than knowing the way HOME?

Thanks be to the ONE who sends us His UNSEEN PRESENCE so that we can understand and continue to travel on the JOURNEY.

QUESTION: How has the ONE spoken His message into your life?