Considering how fortunate my wife Michelle and I have been, we did not deserve the tremendous additional blessing that came in the form of a little guy with the world’s cutest blond curls and magical blue eyes. As the type who "defines" a name, anyone who has met Augie will forever connect that moniker with the frequently grinning, always affectionate, and oft-bouncy boy of few words...

And, speaking of "few words," having a speech-delayed child has allowed me to appreciate the value of the scarce intelligible utterances that escape his mouth–especially when they are proactive expressions of his thoughts or feelings instead of sounds he is repeating. You can imagine the effect this conversation had on my wife a few months back (as her little munchkin lounged on the opposite end of the couch):

"Mumma?"

"Yes Augie?"

"I wuv you."

If only an alchemist could harvest the sorcery that converts a mother into butter in three simple words...

It’s not that if Augie was a bit more generous with oral communication his "I wuv you" would mean any less–but when words are few their impact is so much greater than the normal verbal cacophony of the modern world. We live in a time where we are inundated with words, whether it be on the radio, television, the Internet, the plethora of tree-killing books, text messages, instant messages, modern electronic reading devices, etcetera. It is difficult to value words in these conditions...24-hour cable news channels alone prove the proverb, "When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent" (Proverbs 10:19, ESV). Throw in reality and talk shows (exhibiting various levels of depravity) and suddenly James’ pronouncement could not ring more true:

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell (James 3:5-6).

Perhaps the greatest crime committed by present-day verbosity is how it encourages us to take for granted that which our forefathers died for–the Bible in colloquial tongue. In the U.S. Bibles are "a dime a dozen" and more likely to collect dust than our attention. Our treatment of Scripture proves the adage that that which costs little is appreciated little.

When you hold the pages of Scripture in your hand, do you cherish it as did the first-century Christian who painstakingly hand-copied a single letter from Paul? As the fourth-century Christian who were burned alive under Diocletian because he or she would not join the traditores and hand over his or her scriptures? As a muslim convert in 2010 in an Islamic country who knows what his or her fate will be if someone locates their Arabic Bible?

Stop reading this for a moment, and grab your copy of Scripture.

Are you holding it? Do you realize that in your hands you have the very words of life? (See John 6:68 and Philippians 2:16). That it is "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16, NIV), able to save your soul (James 1:21 & 2 Timothy 3:15), and testifies of the One who loved you so much that He died for you while you were still a sinner (John 5:39 & Roman 5:8)?

Would you die for it?

In the twenty-first century we really don’t understand how precious Scripture is–how blessed we are because our Lord proactively inspired his prophets to record a heavenly "I wuv you" in sixty-six books. The Bible floats in a sea of other worthless words, waiting for us to beckon it to port so it can unload its cargo of wisdom and eternal life.

In reality it is actually we who allow ourselves to be "tossed to and from by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14). We "will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears [we]...accumulate for [ourselves] teachers to suit [our] own passions" (2 Timothy 4:3).

Perhaps as a first step out that awful state we should start with the advice implicit in the song of the psalmist of old (and Amy Grant in 1984):

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105, KJV).

Now, those are words more valuable than anything Augie utters...let’s live by them!

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