{"id":1815,"date":"2022-07-20T09:40:23","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T13:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2022-07-20T09:40:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T13:40:23","slug":"prepositional-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/20\/prepositional-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Prepositional Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the vast majority of human languages, nouns and verbs have all the fun. 

Those forms of speech are usually at the center of the action when it comes to communication.

Prepositions, however, aren\u2019t far behind.  That\u2019s because they express relationships between words.  And that can matter a great deal.

When someone says, \u201cThe boat is in the water,\u201d our minds immediately generate pictures of a boat and a body of water \u2013 perhaps a dory plunging through rapids at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, or a lobster boat heading out from Cape Cod.  We barely notice the little word in<\/strong><\/em>.  But that word takes on monumental significance when someone says, \u201cNow that my life is in Christ, everything is different.\u201d  What does it mean to be \u201cin\u201d Christ?  We assume it must be different from an aircraft carrier being in<\/em> the Pacific Ocean. 

It\u2019s worth pausing to do a quick review of elementary school English.  Our language is graced with approximately 150 prepositions.  Purists have long insisted that it\u2019s improper to use a preposition to end a sentence, such as, \u201cI wonder where the cat has gone off to.\u201d 

A young boy, home sick from school, was dismayed when his mother visited his teacher to pick up a homework assignment.  He somehow managed to ask a question that ended with five prepositions, sighing, \u201cMom, why did you bring that book I didn\u2019t want to be read to out of up for?\u201d

In this regard, Winston Churchill has long been the hero of school children.  According to numerous sources (and they may all be apocryphal), the prime minister was incensed when a strict grammarian corrected him for putting a preposition at the end of a sentence.  \u201cThis is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.\u201d 

Prepositions like over, under, across, beyond, below, around, from, and into tend to stay in the background, humbly and quietly doing their work of connecting other forms of speech.  But every now and then they become the stars of the show.

Think of the stirring conclusion of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg Address: \u201c\u2026that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom\u2014and that government of<\/strong><\/em> the people, by<\/strong><\/em> the people, for<\/strong><\/em> the people, shall not perish from the earth.\u201d  Those three words say a great deal. 

Is there such \u201cprepositional truth\u201d on the pages of Scripture? 

Examples abound. 

Paul says, concerning Jesus, \u201cAll things have been created through<\/strong><\/em> him and for<\/strong><\/em> him, and he is before<\/strong><\/em> all things, and in<\/strong><\/em> him all things hold together\u201d (Colossians 1:16-17).  A thousand doctoral theses could not exhaust the theological implications of those four words. 

Here are some other statements of Paul, each of which is rich with significance. 

\u201cYou are not under<\/strong><\/em> law, but under<\/strong><\/em> grace\u201d (Romans 6:14)
\u201cIf God is for<\/strong><\/em> us, who can be against<\/strong><\/em> us?\u201d (Romans 8:31)
\u201cFor he has rescued us from<\/strong><\/em> the dominion of darkness and brought us into<\/strong><\/em> the kingdom of the Son he loves\u201d (Colossians 1:13).
\u201cThese things happened to<\/strong><\/em> them as examples and written down as warnings for<\/strong><\/em> us\u201d (I Corinthians 10:11).
\u201cI can do all this through<\/strong><\/em> him who gives me strength\u201d (Philippians 4:13).    

Perhaps most striking of all, the Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with a spotlight on the same preposition. 

\u201cThe virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which means God With<\/strong><\/em> Us\u201d (Matthew 1:23).

\u201c[Jesus said], \u2018And surely I am with<\/strong><\/em> you always, to the very end of the age\u2019\u201d (Matthew 28:20). 

Jesus\u2019 name contains a preposition.  There is no event, no appointment, and no circumstance this week in which he will fail to live up to it. 

He is the With-Us God.

And you can spend time <\/em>with<\/em><\/strong> him right now. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the vast majority of human languages, nouns and verbs have all the fun.  Those forms of speech are usually at the center of the action when it comes to communication. Prepositions, however, aren\u2019t far behind.  That\u2019s because they express relationships between words.  And that can matter a great deal. When someone says, \u201cThe boat is in the water,\u201d our… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[474,473],"class_list":["post-1815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-god-with-us","tag-prepositions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}