In A Few Words

 

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everal years ago, I received something in an e-mail that brought back many fond memories of my childhood but also taught me something I didn’t know.  I just love e-mails like that, especially when they find their way into my inbox from someone who doesn’t know anything about me! 

 

I received an e-mail from this sender at least once per week.  The e-mails contained interesting and little-known facts about places, people, and events both current and historic.  I just love little bits of trivia and when I found this company, I added my name to their list. 

 

The edition in question, however, carried an interesting blurb about Theodore Geisel, known better to all of us as Dr. Seuss.  His books have been a mainstay of children’s literature and have encouraged literally millions of children and adults to enjoy the art of reading.   

 

The Cat in the Hat, clearly one of Seuss’ best-loved works, was the subject of this e-mail.  The book was actually written in response to a challenge put to Seuss by his publisher.  The publisher told Dr. Seuss it would be impossible to write a children’s book using fewer than 50 words.  Dr. Seuss took up that challenge and the rest is history.   

 

Now the total number of words in the book does add up to more than 50 but there are no more than fifty distinct words used in the story.  What an incredible feat!  Seuss accomplished what every writer strives for, saying the most you can in the least number of words possible without diminishing or altering the message. 

 

Thousands of years before there was a Dr. Seuss, the Apostle John accomplished the same feat.  However, John was not writing in response to a challenge, and he wasn’t’ interested in producing a children’s story.  John’s goal was to share the truth of Jesus Christ and God’s love for mankind in a way that everyone would understand and remember.  And that is exactly what he did. 

 

The most familiar verse in the entire Bible is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  This verse is only 25 words in length, half of what Seuss had to work with, but the message contained in these 25 words, spans the breadth of all history and all creation. 

 

If you have a Bible handy, I invite you to take a look at it.  Leave it closed and look at its size and thickness.  I know this will vary from person to person and from Bible to Bible, but the idea is the same.  Between the front and the back covers of this book, we have the beginning of all life.  We have the story of man’s creation, his fall, the giving of the law, and the history of the great men and women of God.  God’s promise of redeeming mankind is to be found on every page of this book and the coming of God’s son, Jesus Christ, and the completion of salvation’s plan are also inside. 

 

Yet John, in one sentence, says everything written on every page in the Bible.  In this sentence we see God’s love, God’s longing for redemption, God’s desire that all should come to salvation, and God’s plan to spend eternity with those who love Him.  It’s all here in just 25 words.  The whole Bible has been condensed into one little phrase that has been repeated the world over in almost every language known to man.

 

John said the most anyone has ever said using the least number of words possible. But for all its brevity, John 3:16 leaves nothing out and does not diminish by one iota the height, the depth, the width, nor the breadth of God’s word.  Everything is there, in just a few words!!!