Aren’t words curious things? Sometimes they can seem just as useless as extra sand in the Sahara. To multiply them often subtracts from their value. But just the right word can strike gold. Mark Twain once said that the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

The value of words sometimes depends upon who says them. Winston Churchill once gave a very short graduation speech to a class of British prep school students. He strode to the lectern and said, “Never, never, never give up,” and then he sat down. I can say those words and the meaning will be just a wispy aimless breeze compared to the bracing blast of Churchill’s one-sentence speech, which followed the allied victory over Nazi Germany.

Such curious things, words are. I googled the word "word." Mostly I found sites dedicated to Microsoft computer software and Merriam Webster dictionaries, but there are some more interesting sites. Several offer word problems and puzzles for kids. One site is dedicated to 20^th century English authors; another offers contemporary Christian music. I was particularly taken by www.wordcount.org. At this site you can find out exactly how common any English word is in the year 2006 (to spoil your anticipation, the most common word is “the”). Do you want to know what the 5,000^th most common word is? Just type in the number, and up comes “chaos.” Is your name "Edmund"? For your name, you have the 7,948^th most common word in the English language. Randomly, I discovered that "Telemann" (the Baroque music composer) is more common than "eschatology" (the theological word meaning the study of end times). Telemann wins by a score of 64,345 to 68,879. Why is this significant? It isn’t. I’m just an editor, and I’m curious about words. But being an editor, I do believe words are important.

It’s a funny thing, though: I have to admit that words are not real. They are only important because they stand for something that is real: an aspen tree, a motorcycle, a lover, a home run, God.

Right now you are reading a brand new magazine: Connected. It is to be filled with words. It’s too much to hope that all of these words will be like Mark Twain’s lightning. Some will probably be lightning bugs, and some may just be cold cinders, but we are going to try hard to connect you with words that connect with important reality. That does not mean Connected will always be serious. Some of the words will be serious, but others will be whimsical or humorous. And we hope occasionally lightning will strike gold.

One reason to believe this is possible is that Connected will keep coming back again and again to the ultimate word: The Word, Himself. In the first verse of his gospel, John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then John follows up in verse 14 with this: “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us.”

This is possibly the only word that doesn’t just stand for something; it is, in fact, something. Jesus, whom John calls the Word, is Immanuel. That old-fashioned word means, “God with us.” That is as real as it ever gets. It is lightning striking gold.

Bert Williams, editor