Definition

I don’t think I’ve started with a Bible verse and sometimes I have had to seek and search to match where I hoped I was going. I have always liked Job where God is reminding Job that He (God) takes care of the details that make a difference. “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place……… It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment.” This seemed to fit some ideas I mulled over on having definition.

We usually think of definition as a word by what it means providing clarity or specificity. Demure is feminine word and stalwart leans toward masculine, though not necessarily, Our son sent a customer to an expert for an opinion. When the report back was made, the comment on the information was good, but the customer felt the deliverer was taciturn. My son said, “Yes, he is not loquacious.” Definitely a man of few words.

I am having to make a change in a beneficiary IRA I inherited. Only 7 years have passed to get to this point. At this final step, I needed help with the 21 pages that defined what I wanted to do. It wasn’t just words that slowed the process. It was the meaning of whole sentences. Helper number 1 transferred my call to a “document expert.” Page by page I defined each line with a X or a check in pencil as a guide to filling in. I just got a phone call that all was accepted to this point and we could move forward.

My favorite to notice are the definitions that catch the eye by changing the shape. Teenage girls arch eyebrows with a dark pencil. Block letters assume a 3-D appearance with shading giving depth to the various parts of that letter. I’ve reacted in fright in a semi-dark room because a chair with a shirt over its back was defined in my mind as a goblin coming to get me.

Welcome the winter dawn as it defines the day at 7:38 a.m. where I am now. The paper is clearly seen on the grass. Gently the light defines the curb bending to the street and sunlight moves toward a brightness appropriate for the season. The day once again finds its place, becomes what it is defined to be, and we had nothing to do with the happening.

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, ……. It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment.”

Job 38:12