With Every Breath
It leaves me a bit awestruck and saddened by the fact that we both know and don't know the name of God. Yahweh, the term most sacredly held as the name of God in Jewish tradition, was held so reverently that it wasn't to be said aloud. Because of that, we lost how to say it to the sands of time. Moses heard the Lord say it with his own ears at the burning bush, but now it's something we'll no longer hear in this life.
Except, I heard a theory from a very good friend a while ago that the letters that we do have left from Yahweh, specifically the YHWH (because we aren't actually even sure the vowel sounds are right), looks and sounds as if it's the sound of breath itself formalized into language.
Granted, I have no Biblical supporting cause for that theory, but just the analogy of the possibility makes me smile at the wonder and grandeur of YHWH Himself. YH being the sound of an inhale, WH being the sound of an exhale. All of creation breathing out and praising the name of God Himself with every motion of breath that we take, literally by the design of how we've been made. His name itself being the driving force of life.
It's an even cooler concept when you reflect the idea with Scripture. The fact that the Lord spoke creation into existence, that He breathed life into Eve, that God shows up as a whisper in the wind, that Jesus is the Word, that the rocks will cry out if the worship of man ceases. All of these take on a new meaning to me if literally the breath in our lungs was designed by God to reflect His very name.
But then I got to thinking... Shouldn't that be the case even if the sounds of our breathing aren't the name of God? Shouldn't the very breathe in our lungs speak worship of Him with every YH and WH they make? Shouldn't all of creation? Shouldn't every moment of every effort of our lives be using that very breathe as acts of worship to Him anyways? Whether cries of joy, of sorrow, of pain, of excitement... Shouldn't they all be with a posture of worship?
The following idea came up in my small group this week. It seems like a pretty common consensus amongst mature believers that when they get to heaven and stand before the throne of God, that they will, in fact, not be able to stand. Even going so far to saying that it would be a breathtaking experience. But the reality is, if we believe that's the first thing we will do when we are presented before the throne of the Lord, why don't we live as such now? If we believe heaven will be eternal worship, if we believe that we will sing His praises forever, if we believe that we will fall on our faces and be breathless until He puts that breath back into us, then why don't we live as such now? Is whatever we're doing in this moment, in the next moment, and the moment after that really more significant than being at the feet of our Almighty Creator?
So this Christmas, as we reflect on the idea that literally God incarnate came down and became flesh, who breathed air in His lungs the same as His creation, who cried as a babe, wept on our behalf as an adult, and then had his very own YH and WH beat out of Him to the point where He breathed no more on our behalf... If the God of the universe submitted Himself to such things out of His love for you, for me, then what are we doing with our next breath to sing praises of His name?
