The video Benjamin has listened to sixty three times this week is about prepositions. Perhaps it was created to help preschoolers understand how we use language to place things in relationship to each other. In, beside, between, behind, over, out, and a parade of other words give us clarity once we befriend them. When someone asks me where their socks are I can be specific. 

 

"Under the couch," as opposed to "beside the bathroom door."

 

In eighth grade I had a friend who memorized all of them. They rippled off her tongue like a waterfall of sounds. Sometimes she danced. I was enthralled. When I mentioned this to my twins, who are grammar wizards, they broke into song. Maybe it was the same one. Ditties can last for fifty years. 

 

My granddaughter has a new name for me. Bella. It is her way of saying Grandma, and I love it. Such labels pinpoint the relationship between two people, in this case the world's cutest two year old and one of her most devoted fans. 

 

God came down to earth to be near us. Before Christmas, it could be accurately said that He seemed far away.

 

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55

 

But in clothing Himself in humanity, Jesus chose to walk beside us, lay His hands on us, look deeply into our tearful eyes. In being with us, it opened up space for a closer relationship. And while it is hard for me to believe it, He loves us more than this Bella loves her granddaughter.