Sermon Illustrations

WAG YOUR TAIL!

When missionaries in the northern part of Alaska, where the Eskimos live, they were trying to get the Bible translated, and they had some difficulty.

When you go to translate the Bible in any culture, there’s a difficulty in translating some words, because cultures and languages don’t always have the same words. Ill: “White as snow = white as cotton wool”

There was no word in the Eskimo language for "joy." So the translators struggled and struggled and got nowhere fast.

Then they noticed that the happiest, the most joyful moments in those Eskimo village were in the evening when they fed their sled dogs. They’d go out, and the dogs would yelp and wag their tails and get all excited. And so, out of that experience, they found their word for joy: "wagging their tails."

When you translate our verse Eskimo style, it would read like this, "Wag your tail and again I say wag your tails!"

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