| Reify \RAY-uh-fye\ verb |
| Meaning:to regard (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing : to give definite content and form to (something abstract) |
Example Sentence: “He describes the phenomenal popularity of Edwin Markham's proletarian poem ‘The Man With the Hoe,’ which reified labor's feelings of injustice.” (Neal Gabler, The Washington Post, February 18, 1996)
We’re traveling all summer, and our son is watching the house. I can’t saddle him with the watering and feeding of my lovely birds for a month. So this morning, I opened the 12”X18” door on the front of the big flight cage. I stood in the courtyard, waiting for my little flock of six finches to fly away. They hopped to the branch nearest the opening, slid down the perches to the ground to peck at seed and splash through the morning grooming. Then they flew back up and fluttered back and forth in the cage. Chirping in agitation, they’d keep coming back to sit in front of their window to freedom.
I had to leave for work. None of them had flown the coop. After a half hour, they were all still talking anxiously about what it meant to have air instead of wires in front of them. I’m hoping that by the time I get home the finches will found the lush forest outside their cage. There’s a stream, plenty of grass seed… everything they need, if they will launch out.
Sometimes God puts an open window or door in front of us. We’ve talked about the adventure of faith, dreamed of how big our world can be. And yet sometimes we sit and gaze longingly into the unknown, reifying possibilities without taking a chance away from the safe and the routine. We may hear echoes of “Oh ye of little faith!” as we snug into our perch and look into God’s freedom just one flight away.
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*…for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance. Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Psalm 78:22-24
*[Jesus] So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9,10
*Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. "Peace be with you," he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!
"Why are you frightened?" he asked. "Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don't have bodies, as you see that I do." As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet.
Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he ate it as they watched.
Then he said, "When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:35–45 NEV
*They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." Acts 5:18-20
*[Jesus] These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Revelation 3:7, 8
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