Urgrund

My 11-year-old daughter and I watched with stunned amazement as the 2015 National Spelling Bee Finals whittled down to the last two contestants. Pictured above are co-champions, Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam.

With the field disqualified, Vanya and Gokul were the only ones to remain standing. And remain standing… they did.

Vanya and Gokul went head to head, one at a time, spelling words from all types of subjects and origin. Such included: población, zygoneure, scherenschnitte, and sprachgefühl. Pretty impressive, I must say. Neither missed a letter.

The final round had them going back and forth thirteen times, until a tie was declared. Gokul needed to spell “nunatak” to secure a shared victory. Of course, without hesitation, he speedily nailed it.

The cool thing about watching this competition every year is the exposure that I get to words which I have never seen before. (Which is usually like… all of them. LOL) This year did not disappoint.

During the final round, Vanya had to spell “urgrund.” It’s a word of German origin, which means:

A primal cause or ultimate cosmic principle.

Hmmm…

Sound familiar?

John 1:1-4
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”

Or…

How about this?

Colossians 1:15-20
“He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Jesus Christ… is the Urgrund.

May we (Christians) always keep this in view.

Godspeed, to the brethren!

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