Our Stories
Grrr-r-r-r-r
By Kim Hjelm | posted 12/03/2009
"The voice out of Heaven spoke to me again: 'Go, take the book held open in the hand of the Angel astride sea and earth.' I went up to the Angel and said, 'Give me the little book.' He said, 'Take it, then eat it.'" (Revelation 10:8)
My great-niece, Alanah, who is 18 months old, enjoys her food. This becomes very apparent when as she is eating... she purrs...well, it is really more like a growl or an elongated grunt. It is quite entertaining.
Remember Bjornie? Our puppy that had some growling issues of her own? (see my article in February) Well, almost a year later she still growls but it is usually when her tummy is being rubbed or her ears are being scratched...more of a purr than a growl.
Both Alanah and Bjornie express themselves in the same way - as does our cat - by purring or growling or grunting when they are intensely enjoying the moment.
Believe it or not, the Bible has something to say about this! Yes...it really does! Isaiah 31:4 says,
This is what the LORD says to me: "As a lion growls, a great lion over his prey-"
And in Psalm 1:2,
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
First, you are asking what these two verses have to do with each other and second, you are asking what they have to do with Alanah and Bjornie. Let me explain...
Eugene Peterson (author of The Message) in his book Eat This Book, tells a story about his dog and a bone and how the dog enjoyed the bone so much that he would growl with delight. Then he tells of how he discovered that in the Isaiah passage, above, the word in Hebrew for 'growl' is hagah. And, in the Psalm passage, above, the word in Hebrew for 'meditate' is hagah. MMMmmmmm......he goes on (page 2) to explain further:
"Hagah is a word that our Hebrew ancestors used frequently for reading the kind of writing that deals with our souls. But "meditate" is far too tame a word for what is being signified. "Meditate" seems more suited to what I do in a quiet chapel on my knees with a candle burning on the altar. Or to what my wife does while sitting in a rose garden with the Bible open in her lap. But when Isaiah's lion and my dog meditated they chewed and swallowed, using teeth and tongue, stomach and intestines: Isaiah's lion meditating his goat (if that's what it was); my dog meditating his bone. There is a certain kind of writing that invites this kind of reading, soft purrs and low growls as we taste and savor, anticipate and take in the sweet and spicy, mouth-watering and soul-energizing morsel words - "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8)."
So, when we read The Bible...we are to ingest it, feast on it and gnaw at it. It is to become a part of us; it is, as Peterson says, to get into our nerve endings, our reflexes, and our imagination. It is, to be assimilated and metabolized into worship and prayer. And we are to delight in it...so much so, that we should growl or purr or grunt because we are intensely enjoying the moment. Is this the way you read (eat) The Bible? I have to admit that I am in the habit of reading the Bible and it seems I need to learn to how to feast upon it! Let's do it together...
Kim can be reached via email.
