© 2014 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)
The only language I know well is English. However, my wife and I frequent a nice little Mexican restaurant in town, where several of the waitresses are trying to teach me Spanish. They are very patient. The other day, I tried to use Spanish to ask the waitress how she was. She responded “Bueno, gracias a Dios!” which means “Well, thanks to God!” What my ear heard, however, was “Bueno, gracias. Adios.” which means “Well, thankyou. Bye bye!” Then I began to wonder if, perhaps, the word “adios” was derived from the words “a Dios.” Several waiters and waitresses conferred to ponder this, and concluded that these two expressions were totally unrelated. Later on, however, I researched the word “adios” and found that it is, in fact, related to the expression “a Dios” whereby folks used to commit their friends “to God” as they bid them goodbye. Thus the word “adios” originally had a God-centered meaning which has apparently been forgotten. Even the English word “goodbye” has a similar derivation and comes from the idea “God be with ye” which eventually was corrupted to just “goodbye.”
In modern times, there has been an apparent propensity to forget the original God-centered meanings of common expressions. Such thoughts are being purged from our languages. As our thoughts turn from God to secular humanism, we increasingly purge God from all our thoughts and from the language previously used to express them. This is not a new phenomenon. God describes this tendency common to fallen man.
“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Psalms 10:4).
King Solomon urged his son to
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
God’s Word is essential to this purpose.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
God’s Word explains that the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, came and offered Himself as the blood sacrifice to pay for the sins of His people. But, you have no hope of ever gaining true faith to trust Him without the working of His Word in your heart.
Will your heart follow the downward plunge of deteriorating languages or will you heed what God says in His eternal Word?
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