I found myself with about 15 minutes to kill this afternoon while I waited for a meeting to begin.  I had a couple of important emails I needed to answer, so I snuck into a small computer lab and sat down next to a guy who was staring intently at the screen in front of him.

As I waited for my email to load into my inbox, I couldn’t help but notice the guy seemed to be practicing sign language along with a video on his screen.  As his video finished, I — for some reason I still can’t explain — leaned over and quietly said something about how impressed I was from just watching for a few minutes.

He smiled and began showing me his list of vocabulary words he was learning for his class; this week’s theme was on family.  I asked him why he was learning to sign and, after a moment of hesitation, he explained that his brother is deaf and he wanted to be able to better communicate with him.  When I asked him what his brother thought about him taking a sign language class, his face colored, almost as if he was embarrassed by the question.

“I haven’t exactly told him yet… I thought I’d surprise him when I see him this summer.”

– — –

I’ve been thinking about that guy all evening, wondering if he realizes what an incredible gift he is giving by doing whatever it takes — classes, hours of studying, aching hands — to learn to speak his brother’s language.  I imagine that their relationship will take on a whole new level of intimacy now that he’s chosen to do whatever it takes to be able to communicate with his brother, to be able to speak his language.

I was still thinking about this guy a few minutes ago when I went for a walk under a dark grey sky, wondering what Jesus must have been thinking some 2,000 years ago as He realized that the day of His death was quickly approaching.  I couldn’t help but wonder if He too stood under a dark sky as He made the decision to do whatever it took to be able to communicate with us, to be able to speak our language.

– — –

You’d do it all over again, just to be able to speak my language, wouldn’t You?