05 February 2011

God or Bigfoot?

While working through exegetical checking with one of our translation teams, we spent some time cleaning up the spatial-visual clarity of their translation. They asked me to watch a real-time draft as they practiced rehearsing it for filming. The signer got to the part where God is walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, and calling, "Man, where are you?" when I burst out laughing. God, as portrayed through the signing, was walking, "Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom." with heavy, monstrous steps through the garden. 

Let me back up... Genesis 3:8 in the NASB reads: "They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."

Issue? "They heard ... God walking in the garden..." From a Deaf perspective, they way you hear sound is by feeling it. So, intuitively, it made perfect sense that God's footsteps would have been heavy enough for Adam & Eve to feel the vibration and thus "hear" God walking in the garden. 

Problem? God is Spirit. And, I'm more than 99.99% sure that He doesn't walk like Bigfoot. ;)

When I pointed out the issue, we all had a good laugh. Shaking their heads, with big grins, they quickly modified the sign to something more accurate. But it provided good comic relief in the midst of a heavy day of work. =) 

I love this all-consuming, challenge, yet positively wonderful learning process. Pray for the translation teams, for the artists, for the consultants, and for our office staff. We feel the weight of "accurately handling the Word of Truth," and feel the enemy's opposition. But, wow, to be in this part of the process... it is incredible. He will upload the integrity of His Word... and it will go forth to bring LIFE. Amen!

1 comment:

LaLa said...

I love this. I really do.