Lord, Loosen His Tongue!
When
my dear, sweet wife and I were blessed with our first child, we were over the
moon with joy. I remember walking into
the nursery each morning and quietly watching our little daughter sleep. I couldn’t get over the fact that we two had
become three. We praised God for this
wonderful blessing. Our lives had
changed. But we couldn’t wait to see
where life would lead us.
Parenting is a very
rewarding experience. Parenting is also
a lot of work. It’s a 24-7-365 kind of
job. And there is a certain feeling that
when you’ve raised those kids and they go off to college or get married and get
a job or pursue some dream that they have, you, as a parent, have reached some
sort of invisible “finish line.” Of
course, that’s not true. There is no
finish line. You are always a
parent. They are always your kids.
Being
a grandparent is different. Your
happiness at the birth of a grandchild is different. Now you are happy and excited for your kids,
that God has blessed them with the gift of life. You look forward to loving that baby and, as
the child grows older, to spoil them – within reason – and to impart wisdom and
guidance as the opportunities arise.
We
are blessed with seven grandchildren. These children provide a joy that I can’t
explain. But people around church tell
me that I light up when I see one of those precious grandkids. That sounds like a pretty good description of
what your grandchild can do to you.
I
say all of this because an incident that St. Mark describes in his Gospel – the
healing of a deaf and mute man, found in chapter seven. Some of the man’s friends brought the fellow
to Jesus and asked for the Lord’s help.
Jesus responded in a way we haven’t seen from Him often. Verse 33 reads: After He took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put His fingers
into the man’s ears. Then He spit and
touched the man’s tongue. Sometimes
Jesus heals with a simple touch and sometimes just by speaking a word. In this case, what better way to communicate
to a deaf and mute man what the Lord intended to do for him?
Next,
Jesus sighed deeply and then spoke one word: Ephphatha, which means “be opened!”
The good news in verse 35 reads: At
this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak
plainly.
This text is
meaningful because, shortly after his birth, my oldest grandson needed his
tongue to be loosened. At a time when
toddlers begin to form words, my grandson could only make a few sounds. Fortunately, my daughter and her husband
quickly sought help and learned that my grandson had apraxia. In laymen’s terms, those with apraxia know in
their brain that they want to communicate with words but, for some reason, the
brain and tongue don’t seem to work together.
Given
this diagnosis, night after night, my family and I would pray, “Lord, loosen
his tongue! Help him to speak!” And, at just the right time, the Lord answered
our prayer.
Not
as dramatically as the story of the deaf and mute man but amazing just the
same. With the help of a caring and
patient speech therapist, my grandson slowly began to form words. The difficult consonants became easier to
speak. Certain letters that he couldn’t
pronounce suddenly became easier to say.
The progress was slow but still remarkable.
Now,
at age 10, my grandson has no trouble communicating with his parents, family,
teachers, friends and total strangers! Years ago he used to sit on my lap
during children’s messages. He had no
problem responding to my questions or adding his own comments to the story I
was telling. At the time, a newer member of our church was surprised to learn
that he had apraxia. “He talks so well
and so clearly,” she said. “I think
there have been a few times when he was going to take over for you and do the
message himself!”
My
oldest grandson, a pastor? Maybe God loosed his tongue so that he might one day
proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to others.
I
wouldn’t mind that at all.
