"In the beginning a God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light."

The first thing this first passage of the Bible says is God created the heavens and the earth, formless, empty and dark. The next thing it says "And God said". Since I started discussing things with God, it's seemingly little things like this that continue to amaze me. I knew of this passage well before I became an adult, but even when I became a Christian I never really thought about it.

And God said. Why? Man didn't exist - neither did languages as we know them. So how did He speak?

Saying words is only half of the communication puzzle. Ideas become thoughts and are expressed into forms (often words). Another mind takes the expression and translates it back into thoughts and ideas. Hopefully the ideas are the largely the same for the recipient and sender, although these days that seems to be all too often a rare hope.

Communication within the Godhead does not require words. The nearest I can imagine to that might be the Vulcan mind meld used by Dr Spock in the old Star Trek TV programme - something far beyond our human minds. And if God made us in His image, why does our communication with Him require words? I'm discovering that it doesn't. God puts ideas into our mind (as do our enemies). When that happens, we don't usually recognise the source of the thought, but as I'm learning to do, we can always ask Him.

I've come to understand the human mind is indeed wonderful. I'm starting to appreciate just how unique each mind is.  Dr Seuss once said: "Oh, the thinks you can think" which is only part of the story. He goes on to say "if only you think". Today it seems most people don't think beyond narrow limits. Some suggest (1984, The Matrix) we don't think ar all.

What's scarey is the tendency to limit our thinking to that deemed acceptable to our society, which of course changes over time. Of course thinking has to change as we learn more - but too often the validity of ideas is not questioned. Not every idea is true or good. Most dangerous are ideas which contain an element of truth, mixed with falsehood.

Today society classifies expressions of ideas as hate speech just because they don't agree with it. There is real hate speech - for example encouraging raciscm, sexism, etc. If I were to talk about differences between the "races" (itself a flawed concept) I could be deemed racist and speaking hate. (Similarly the sexes.) Looking back on my life, that could have contained some truth at times (mainly due to ignorance), though as a young man I was disowned for a time as a result of challenging racist views.

In our own land, there are real differences between Maori and Pakeha. As a small example, the English word "family" is often equated to the Maori word "whanau". While the closest match, it's not exactly the same. Whanau has a more extensive and inclusive sense to it. Such differences don't mean one is "better" than the other. We can and should learn from each other, and at appreciate more of what the words mean, instead of assuming it means the same as we mean by our word.

Is it any wonder we don't understand each other - in families, in communities, in business, in education, in politics .... If we all took the time to listen to ideas, to provide feedback and ask questions so all parties understood what was meant, how much needless confusion and strife could be averted.