Good morning and welcome to the January 14th Musing.

“Perfect!” said our server in relation to my choice of a beefsteak tomato salad.

Speaking of tomatoes…

What do tomatoes and potatoes have in common?

Toes.

If I were a farmer, how would I measure my height?

From my head, tomatoes.

What type of tomato smells best?

A Roma

I have digressed…

“Perfect.”   The word was repeated with each spoken selection that Leah and I made.    And I get it.     We would hardly expect our server to say “No, you really don’t want that.”    The recital of “perfect” helped us to feel good about our choices and to enhance our dining experience.   And it was indeed a very nice anniversary dinner.

Leah and I chuckled, but in reflection I ask…why do we use words in a way that takes the edge off of their precision?    

For instance, just as not everything that is called perfect is perfect, not everything that is called “awesome” inspires “awe.”  “The party was awesome”, “that song is awesome”…do these things really inspire “awe”, like that, according to Oxford Dictionary, brings “a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder”?  (And just when did “awful” become a negative term?)

Not to belabor a point, or to try to change language usage, but I would like us to consider One for a moment for whom the words “perfect” and “awesome” so aptly, appropriately, and eternally fit.

“The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:4 (NASB95)

And 

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
Psalm 33:8 (NASB95)

The Lord God, the Rock.

Musing on Him…”Perfect!”

Rod Milton

S.D.G. – 3