February 25, 2026
One of the biggest A-Ha moments in my life was taking Hebrew in college and learning that the name for God is untranslatable. The word for God in Hebrew is a verb form. We are hopelessly stuck in the nouns. A noun is a person, place or thing we were all taught. But in the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament, God is a Verb, an action.
It’s all about what God has done, is doing, and will do. Many of our nouns started as verbs to which -er or -or was added. Farming is done by a farmer. Educating is done by an educator. Writing is done by a writer.
The verb form for God is present, active, imperfect: present means now, active means busy, imperfect means not finished yet.
We cannot put God on a shelf or place God in a pantheon far away. God’s too busy for that.
Let Us Pray. Father in Heaven: Help us to see You in the continuity of creating, in loving and serving, in singing – in living. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.